Racers Take On Gateway National Challenge

Monday, September 23

Madison, Ill.

Murray State

SIUE

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

9/22/2019 6:58:00 PM | Men's Golf

Live Scoring Tournament Guide

The Murray State men's golf team tees it up for the sixth-consecutive season at the 2019 Derek Dolenc Invitational, hosted by SIUE at the Gateway National Golf Links in Madison, Illinois.

The order of play calls for a 36-hole day Monday on an 8:15 a.m. shotgun start with the final round of 18 holes on Tuesday at the same time.

The field of 18 includes the Racers with five other Ohio Valley Conference teams including host SIUE, Austin Peay, Eastern Illinois, UT Martin, Tennessee Tech and Belmont. Northern Colorado, Bradley, Missouri State, Omaha, Creighton, Weber State, Eastern Illinois, Drake, Loyola Chicago, Western Illinois, Northern Iowa and Southern Utah make up the rest of the group.

The Racers send out a starting lineup including Avery Edwards, Austin Knight, Connor Coombs, Dalton Bagwell and Walker Beck. James Boone will play the event for the Racers as an individual.

In the first two events of the season, the Racers won their home event at the MSU Invitational and placed 11^th at the EKU Intercollegiate. Knight didn't play in the EKU event and has a scoring average of 69.7 in three rounds, while Edwards is at 70.8 in six rounds. Coombs sits at 71.0, Beck at 71.5 and Bagwell is at 72.7. Boone has an average of 74.0 in the early going of the season.

After first playing Gateway in 2014, the Racers have a pair of top-10 finishes in the event that is played on a course that features spectacular views of the St. Louis Gateway Arch which is seen in the distance across the east side of the Mississippi River. MSU's top finish came in 2014 when they placed fourth and in 2017, MSU placed ninth. The Racers' scoring record in the event is held by Wheeler from 2017 (68-73-74=215) and Jordan Smith in 2014 (75-69-71=215). MSU's top finisher a year ago, was Wheeler (71-74-74=219) with a spot in 27^th place.

Gateway National will play to a length of 7,092 yards and to a par of 71.