What You Need to Know:
* With an automatic bid to NCAA Regional play on the line, Georgia State will open the Sun Belt Championship on Sunday at The Raven Golf Club in Miramar Beach, Fla.
* Georgia State enters the conference tournament No. 63 by GolfStat, the second-highest ranked program in the league.
* For the first time ever, the league champion will be determined by match play. After 54 holes, the top four teams will advance to match play to decide a champion.
ATLANTA – With a pair of wins already this season, Georgia State will look for a third and an eighth conference title when the Sun Belt Championship begins on Sunday at The Raven Golf Club in Miramar Beach, Fla.
A slightly new format will await the Panthers in Florida this year. The 11-team field will play 54 holes of stroke play from Sunday to Tuesday. The top four teams will then qualify for match play with No. 1 vs. No. 4 and No. 2 vs. No. 3 scheduled for Wednesday morning. The winners will advance to the championship match on Wednesday afternoon.
Since 1998, Georgia State has finished in the top three in the conference tournament all but three times with seven titles and six second-place finishes.
“All season we have been trying to build to the point where we are playing our best golf at the end of the season,” head coach Joe Inman said. “We are pretty close right now. Our guys are prepared and want to secure a bid back to NCAA Regional play the easy way, by winning our conference title.”
Georgia State's line-up will include senior JJ Grey, junior Nathan Mallonee, sophomores Max Herrmann and Alexander Herrmann, along with freshman Nick Budd.
Grey, a favorite for Sun Belt Player of the Year, leads the team with a 71.53 scoring average, second-lowest in program history. He has four third-place finishes this year and has only finished outside the top 25 once.
Max Herrmann is second on the team with a 72.56 scoring average and finished fourth at the Furman Intercollegiate less than a month ago. His twin brother Alexander is just behind him with a 72.70 scoring average, but has put together three top 10 and six top 25 finishes this year.
After struggling early in the spring, Mallonee has returned to form with back-to-back top 12 finishes. He enters the championship with a 72.97 scoring average after finishing in the top 25 in all five fall tournaments.
Budd rounds out the line-up coming off a tie for 22nd at the Old Waverly Collegiate. He has compiled a 74.07 scoring average this spring.
Following a Saturday afternoon practice round at 2:30 p.m., teams will tee off early on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. For round one, Georgia State will be paired with Troy and Georgia Southern, teeing off a 9:15 a.m. ET. Live scoring of the event will be available at GolfStat.com.
With a conference championship win, Georgia State will automatically earn a spot into NCAA Regional play which will be played May 16-18 at six national sites. Without a win, the Panthers will have to wait to see if they are selected as an at-large team. The NCAA championship is scheduled for May 27-June 1 at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.
