Tennessee Tech men’s golf coach Polk Brown has used the off-season to see how the Golden Eagles fare outside of Cookeville.
Brown took the team to other golf courses outside Tennessee this summer. Besides going to the Golden Eagle Golf Course, Brown spent time around Tennessee, going to Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Crossville throughout the winter and summer months. Brown said he does a couple of specific things when preparing to travel with his team.
“It’s a lot of planning,” Brown said. “It’s a lot of weather watching. I mean I’ve got four, five weather apps on my phone. We’re an outdoor sport, so we have to plan ahead, look ahead and, we’re trying to do everything we can to put these young men in a position to be successful and that starts with me and [assistant coach Amanda Smith.”]
Brown and the Golden Eagles began qualifying for upcoming tournaments last week. Brown said he wants to see the team finish stronger than they did in last season’s cups.
“It’s really hard to do,” Brown said. “Golf is one of those sports where it’s not really a 50-50 thing. Winning or losing, you got 12, 15 teams in a tournament so you have to play high level golf across two, three rounds.”
Brown and the Golden Eagles will return to the Carolinas in September to take part in the Carolina Cup. The Golden Eagles finished in the top five during the first two rounds and ended the Cup in sixth place. Brown said Tennessee Tech played their best golf during that tournament last season.
“That was one of the tournaments where we played better than, relative to the rest,” Brown said. “Mainly just want to see some improvement from the guys. I think we got the personnel to be able to do that.”
Brown returns seven players to the roster this season. Brown and the Golden Eagles will open their season September 7th, where Tennessee Tech will compete in another Carolina Cup. The Golden Eagles will travel to Pawley’s Island in South Carolina to compete in the Golfweek Program Challenge.
