Augusta, Ga. - The Augusta men's golf season tees it up at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate Sept. 5-7 in Knoxville, Tn. to start the fall portion of the schedule. This year's Jaguars feature seven returning golfers including the starting five players who were part of the team at the NCAA Championship last year. That has expectations running high for this season after teh strong finish the team had. 

"The self-belief is there for sure," said coach Steven Paine. "I think that's going to go a long way to the season, no doubt." 

Bo Blanchard II leads the returning golfers as Blanchard won the Georgia Amateur and qualified for the U.S. Amateur in the late summer. He's joined by Stefan Jacobs, Pieter Rossouw Jr., Dean Wilken, Chapman Barnettt, Behn Heyns and Mason Fundingsland, who all saw tournament action a year ago for the Jaguars. 

Blanchard, Jacobs, Heyns and Rossouw will be joined by newcomer Benjamin Lübker in the starting lineup in Knoxville this week. Lübker is joined by Henry Kopydlowski, Pascal Gunther and Josh Daniels as the new faces on the team. 

"I think they add experience overall as a group. I think our first tournament last year we had a combined 30 or 40 college starts. Now, we have 130 with this team," added Paine. "It took us a little time to get going last year, but I think we'll hit the ground running this year." 

Paine also added Lübker's game reminds him of Blanchard's, which is a good thing.

With the experience and  new faces, it increases the competition just to battle for the starting spots in each event. 

"The four new guys  who  have come in are hungry as well. So for the guys returning, there are some hungry guys behind them and it's definitely ramped up the competition," added Paine.

Following the trip to Knoxville, the Jaguars will travel to Kentucky a week later for the Bearcat Invitational. They also have tournaments in Columbia, S.C., Chapel Hill, N.C., and Manoa Hi. to round out the fall schedule. 




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