Men's Golf SCAC Championship Preview
BLANCO, Texas – The University of Dallas men's golf team competes in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championship on April 24-25. For the third straight year, the tournament will be hosted at Vaaler Creek Golf Club in Blanco, Texas.
Fans can get more information and keep up with the latest results on the 2017 SCAC Golf Championships here. End of the day recaps and results will also be on udallasathletics.com.
Head Coach Garrett Smith will be guiding his squad for the second year at the SCAC Tournament. He was hired in March, 2016. Coach Smith has led the Crusaders through a busy slate both in the fall and spring of the 2016-17 year. UD competed in five competitions in the fall and then five on the spring docket. This included three in March and all five coming over a 21-day span.
Five golfers from the program have performed in every round this year for the Crusaders. Headlining the quintet is Thomas Schuberg (Camarillo, Calif.). The sophomore has posted team-bests in the majority of rounds this campaign. On November 1, 2016, Schuberg notched a career-low at The Classic at the Tribute. In five tournaments in the fall he had an average score of 76.63 and has a 76.69 currently. Schuberg has amassed two tournament wins (Hendrix Dual #2 on October 2 | Hendrix Dual #3 on Apr. 2) and three SCAC Golfer of the Weeks. His most recent was his first of the spring during the week of March 13.
Erik Hamm (Brentwood, Tenn.) is averaging a score of 77.19 in 16 rounds this year. The freshman nipped a couple ticks off his 77.25 average in his fall debut season. Overall his personal-low is a 73, which was tied a second time in the team's most recent outing at Little Rock, Arkansas, in the Hendrix College Dual #4. Hamm's performance garnered his first ever Individual Tournament win and the team's third individual win in 2016-17. Hamm tallied his other career-best at the UMHB Fall Invitational. Hamm debuted in college with a 152 over two rounds and tied for third in the Louisiana College Fall Invite (September 19-20).
Rounding out the team are Jacob Wade (Magnolia, Texas), Oliver Rivers (Horsham West Sussex, England) and Matthew Nickel (Wichita, Kan.).
Wade is the other newcomer on the squad this year and has averaged an 81.94. His lowest score has been a 76 and achieved three times. This includes twice in the spring portion of the schedule and with the latest coming at the Hendrix College Dual #4. That most recent time Wade competed on the links, he finished second behind his classmate Hamm.
Rivers delivered a personal-best 78 in the first round of Pinecrest Intercollegiate to start the spring part of the season off. His performance had followed a previous low at The Classic at the Tribute (79) to cap the fall season.
Nickel was another UD golfer to achieve a career-low at The Classics at The Tribute hosted in The Colony, Texas, with a 77 after an 18-hole round.
Only the pair of newcomers on the team, Hamm and Wade, will be new to the Vaalar Creek Golf Club. The other trio of Crusaders have been on the course at least once in their careers. Schuberg and Rivers were top two on the links last spring. Schuberg posted a 75 on the second day to lift him to 22nd overall. Nickel was in the SCAC Championship in 2015 and is the only returner from that year. He was studying abroad in the Rome Program last year.
There are six teams competed in the SCAC overall. The other five schools include: Centenary College, Schreiner University, Southwestern University, Texas Lutheran University, and Trinity University.
In 2016, Southwestern narrowly earned the SCAC Title with a 591. Trinity (592) and Schreiner (593) were within one stroke of each other for second and third. Tyler Gammill from the Pirates had a 141 (70, 71) to win the individual championship.