The Georgia Southern golf team is looking for a rare three-peat this week as the annual Schenkel Invitational gets underway Friday at Forest Heights Country Club.

The Eagles lost some pretty talented seniors who were at Georgia Southern for five years and helped them to back-to-back Schenkel championships. This year with plenty of new faces stepping in, head coach Carter Collins saw his team struggle a little out of the gate. Last week things looked like they finally came together as the Eagles won their third straight title at the Colleton River Collegiate.

“We felt like we needed to make some progress early on because we had so many new guys in different roles,” Collins said. “We have now seen that progress pay off. It took a little longer than the team would have liked, but they kept fighting for each other. You could tell the guys worked hard over the winter by the qualifying scores. I thought we played our best golf in Hawaii and then went to the Ford and played well but we were just missing something, so the win last week put things together.”

Joining Georgia Southern in the 14-team field at the 2024 Schenkel will be UAB, Army, Campbell, Florida, Florida Gulf Coast, Kentucky, Middle Tennessee State, Mississippi State, North Carolina State, Notre Dame, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Leading the way at Colleton River was Eagle freshman Brycen Jones who took low medalist honors at -12 under par. For his effort Jones was names Sun Belt Conference men’s golfer of the week.

“When I got here the goal was to try my best to be able to play,” Jones said. “I really just wanted to show what I thought I could do. I feel like we have all been playing good golf, just not at the same time. Last week we finally got it to work all together and it was a great result. We are happy to be able to host the Schenkel this year and I am excited to play in it for the first time. The guys have talked so much about the great crowds and I feel like that will make it even more exciting.”

The Eagles have played seven tournaments and have had seven different lineups. That will all change this week as Collins rolls out the same lineup that brought home the victory last week at Colleton River.

“Finding the lineup has been a challenge at times, but it is also part of the process,” Collins said. “This week we aren’t preoccupied with winning our third straight Schenkel. We just want to put our best foot forward. We are taking this week one day at a time and we hope that builds into something special Sunday.”

Many of the Eagle players who helped win the last two Schenkel tournaments will be in attendance watching this year’s group try and get it done. Senior Luke Dasher is excited to be able to be a part of this year’s group and is looking forward to seeing his former teammates there to root them on.

“We have seen them a few times, but it will be great to see them there pulling for us this week,” Dasher said. “I think a lot of people expected us to struggle this year, and even though we didn’t do as well as we thought we could I think we are peaking at the right time. I feel like we are going to put on a show for the people who come out this week.”