SMU Set For American Athletic Conference Championship

Sunday, April 23

Palm Harbor, Fla.

TBD

SMU

American Athletic Conference Championship

SMU Set For American Athletic Conference Championship

Apr 21 | Men's Golf

The 54-Hole Tournament Runs Sunday-Tuesday, April 23-25

SMU at the 2017 American Athletic Conference Championship
Championship Central	Championship Central
Dates/Start Times	Sunday-Tuesday; April 23 - April 25 Sunday • 18 holes • 8:00 a.m. ET/7:00 CT Monday • 18 holes • 8:00 a.m. ET/7:00 CT Tuesday • 18 holes • 8:00 a.m. ET/7:00 CT
Location	Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club – Copperhead Course (Par 71 \| Yards: 7,125) Palm Harbor, Fla. Course \| Weather
Field	Cincinnati (Golfstat Rank #87), Connecticut (Golfstat Rank #118), East Carolina (Golfstat Rank #91), Houston (Golfstat Rank #54), Memphis (Golfstat Rank #127), SMU (Golfstat Rank #75), Temple (Golfstat Rank #222), UCF (Golfstat Rank #46) and USF (Golfstat Rank #56)
Tee Times	Tee Times
Live Coverage	American Athletic Conference Men's Golf Championship American Digital Network Live: Tuesday: Noon ET / 11 a.m. CT
Live Stats	GolfStat
Facebook	SMU M-Golf \| SMU Mustangs
Twitter	@SMUGolfM \| @SMUMustangs

The SMU men's golf team heads to Palm Harbor, Fla., for the 2017 American Athletic Conference Championship hosted at the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club, April 23-25. The three-day tournament will be played on the Copperhead course. Live results can be found on golfstat.com.

THE COURSE: The 7,125-yard Copperhead course at the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club will play at par-71. The Copperhead course plays host to the world's greatest golfers during the PGA TOUR's annual visit to the resort for the Valspar Championship Presented by BB&T. The Copperhead course played host to the inaugural American Athletic Conference tournament (2013-14), where SMU won both the team and individual titles.

THE FIELD/SEEDING: Team seeding for the 2017 American Athletic Conference Men's Golf Championship is based on Golfstat ranking.

No. 1 - UCF (Golfstat Rank #46)	No. 4 - SMU (Golfstat Rank #75)	No. 7 - UConn (Golfstat Rank #118)
No. 2 - Houston (Golfstat Rank #54)	No. 5 - Cincinnati (Golfstat Rank #87)	No. 8 - Memphis (Golfstat Rank #127)
No. 3 - USF (Golfstat Rank #56)	No. 6 - ECU (Golfstat Rank #91)	No. 9 - Temple (Golfstat Rank #222)

THE EVENT: The American Athletic Conference Championship will feature nine teams with all teams playing 18 holes a day, Sunday-Tuesday. Live scoring will be available on golfstat.com. The middle-seeds (4-6) will open play at 8 a.m. ET/7 CT on hole No. 1, before the top seeds (1-3) tee off at 8:50 a.m. ET. The 7-9 seeds will start at 8:15 a.m. ET on hole 10.

REPRESENTING SMU (TEAM):
Andrew Buchanan | Alex Higgs | Gray Townsend | Daniel Connolly | Jackson Markham

WATCH LIVE: The American Digital Network (ADN) will have live coverage of the 18th hole during the final round of the championship beginning at Noon ET/11 a.m. CT on Tuesday. Once competition is complete, the ADN will carry the awards ceremony, as well as player and coaches interviews.

SMU AT THE AAC CHAMPIONSHIP: The Mustangs look to build on to their AAC Championship success, having finished first or second in their previous appearances. In 2013-14, SMU (+6, 287-286-285—858) won the inaugural American Athletic Conference Championship by five strokes over UCF (+11, 283-289-291—863), and Bryson DeChambeau won the individual title at 7-under-par (70-68-68—206). The league title was SMU's first since winning three straight from 2004-06. At the 2014-15 tournament, the Mustangs earned runner-up honors following a record-setting 15-under-par performance in the final round of play. DeChambeau finished second on the individual leaderboard following a tournament record 8-under-par 64 on day three. SMU did not participate in last season's AAC Tournament as a result of a post-season ban.

SMU ALL-TIME IN CONFERENCE TOURNAMENTS: SMU has won nine conference titles in the program's history - five as a member of the Southwest Conference (1931, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1988), two in the WAC (2004, 2005), one in the Conference USA (2006) and one in the American Athletic Conference (2014). SMU won three straight titles from 2004-06, and three of four from 1953-56. SMU has had 12 individual conference champions, with Bryson DeChambeau recording the most recent victory in 2014. Others who have won conference titles include: Will Dodson (2005, WAC) and (2006, C-USA), Hank Kuenhe (1996, SWC) and Payne Stewart (1979, SWC). The Mustangs had four conference champions in the 1930s and three in the 1950s.

RESULTS: Live results will be available during tournament play at golfstat.com. Tournament results will be posted at SMUMustangs.com at the end of each day of competition.

LAST TIME OUT: The SMU men's golf team wrapped up its regular season Saturday, with a 13th-place finish at The Maxwell. Freshman Jackson Markham carded a 4-over-par 74 on day two to finish the event tied for 33rd (+11, 73-74-74-221).

TOWNSEND WINS FIRST COLLEGIATE TOURNAMENT: Junior Gray Townsend fired a 2-under 68 in the final round of the Marquette Intercollegiate to earn his first collegiate tournament win, and record a career-low tournament score of 207. Townsend finished tied with Ryan Lumsden of Northwestern. In the team competition, the SMU men's golf team carded the tournament's low round, 7-under-par (273) in the final round, to finish in fourth place (+6,846), and earn its first top five finish of the season. All four counting scorers finished even or sub-par. SMU including Townsend, the Mustangs had five top-25 finishes or better, with three finishing top-10.

BAXTER, BUCHANAN WIN U.S. AMATEUR FOUR-BALL TITLE: SMU teammates Ben Baxter and Andrew Buchanan won the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship on May 25 after topping Brandon Cigna and Ben Warnquist, 3-and-2, at the Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y. All square through 11 in the championship match, Baxter gave the SMU duo its first lead, draining a par putt on the 12th to win the hole. The Mustangs capitalized on a missed putt by Warnquist on the 14th to take a 2-up advantage, before stretching the lead to three with a win on 15. On the 16th hole, Buchanan lagged a birdie putt within two feet of the pin, resulting in a victory conceding par.

SMU U.S. AMATEUR SUCCESS: Since 1998, four Mustangs have won the U.S. Amateur, more than any collegiate program during that span. DeChambeau is the fourth joining the class consisted of Kelly Kraft (2011), Colt Knost (2007) and Hank Kuehne (1998).

SMU EARNS GCAA ALL-ACADEMIC AWARD: The SMU men's golf team was named a 2016 All-Academic team, as selected by the Golf Coaches Association of America. SMU, which recorded a 3.37 team GPA, is one of 113 Division I teams to earn the honor.

WELCOME TO THE HILLTOP: SMU head coach Jason Enloe has announced the addition of two student-athletes for the 2017-18 season, as McClure Meissner and Justin Thompson have signed National Letters of Intent to join the Mustangs.

McClure "Mac" Meissner makes his way to the Hilltop from San Antonio, Texas, where he attends Alamo Heights High School. He is currently ranked 72nd by Golfweek after reaching 49th, and 68th in the AJGA Polo rankings, after multiple event wins and eight top-10 American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) event finishes.

Justin Thompson, a Dallas native, will stay in north Texas and join SMU after finishing at Trinity Christian Academy. In 2016, Thompson was named to the All-TJGT Team after multiple event wins and top 10 finishes. While at Trinity Christian, he was a four-year letterwinner under Marshall Edwards, serving as the golf team captain his senior year, and winning the team's MVP award his junior year.

TRINITY FOREST: NEW HOME OF SMU GOLF: Designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the championship course at Trinity Forest Golf Club adheres to their design philosophy that traditional, strategic golf is the most rewarding. Built in the Great Trinity Forest and surrounded on its edges by thousands of majestic hardwood trees, the classic links-style course artistically meanders through an open meadow of rolling, rumpled sand recalling the wind swept land of Great Britain or the Northeastern US.

The Club is located less than 10 minutes from downtown Dallas on Great Trinity Forest Way, and the facilities include an 18-hole championship golf course, a world-class practice academy, and a short course, all designed by Coore and Crenshaw.

Trinity Forest will become the future home of the PGA TOUR's AT&T Byron Nelson Championship as well as annually host an NCAA invitational tournament and additional high-profile professional and amateur events. The Club is also the new home course for SMU's golf team.

2015-16 RECAP: The Mustangs finished top 10 in eight of nine tournaments and was top five in four events, including two victories. SMU closed out the fall with its first victory at the Erin Hills Intercollegiate, before opening the spring season with a win at the Farms Collegiate Invitational.