Men’s Golf Returns to Schenkel Invitational This Weekend
STATESBORO, Ga. – Kentucky men’s golf returns to familiar grounds when the Wildcats tee it up in the Schenkel Invitational at Forest Heights Country Club (par 72, 7,123 yards) this Friday through Sunday.
This year marks the 25th appearance overall for the Wildcats in the Schenkel and the 18th consecutive time they have been in the field. Kentucky has finished inside the top five at the tournament a total of nine times, most recently in 2023. Last year, UK took 10th place with a 5-under par team score of 859.
The 54-hole tournament is hosted by Georgia Southern and will feature 18 holes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The field consists of 14 teams and is headlined by No. 11 Florida, No. 12 Utah and No. 38 Notre Dame.
Kentucky begins play Friday morning with tee times off hole No. 1 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:06 a.m. The Cats will be paired with the two highest ranked teams in the field, Florida and Utah, for the opening round.
Jack Schoenberger heads the Kentucky lineup coming off his best performance of the season at the Desert Mountain Collegiate. The junior earned a T8 finish in Scottsdale with a 54-hole total of 2-under par. He made 17 birdies in the tournament, tied for the second most of any player in the field. Schoenberger owns the best scoring average on the roster this season at 72.71 through seven events.
Senior captain Jansen Preston continues his streak of consecutive starts for the Wildcats, playing in the No. 2 spot this weekend. Preston has been in the lineup for all 17 of Kentucky’s tournaments since the Lexington native returned to his hometown last season after transferring from Vanderbilt. He is the lone Wildcat player this weekend who competed in the Schenkel last year for UK. Preston was T30 at Forest Heights a year ago with a final score of 2-under par.
The third, fourth and fifth positions in the UK starting lineup will all be occupied by freshmen. It is the first time this season that the youthful trio of Jacob Lang, Jacob Settles and Gavin Clutts have all been in the starting lineup together.
For Lang and Settles, the Schenkel marks their third consecutive start this spring. Lang has a spring scoring average of 73.73 and earned his best collegiate finish at the Watersound Invitational, where he tied for 12th last month. Settles possesses a 73.83 stroke average for the spring which includes his career-best card of 69 (-3) in the opening round of the Desert Mountain Collegiate. Clutts enters the lineup for the first time this spring after playing in four fall events for the Wildcats. The native of Hazard, Kentucky has a 75.00 soring average and posted his best finish at the inaugural Cullan Brown Collegiate, where he was T37.
Live scoring for the tournament can be found on golfstat.com.
Kentucky Lineup:
- Jack Schoenberger: Junior, Alpharetta, Ga.
- Jansen Preston: Senior, Lexington, Ky.
- Jacob Lang: Freshman, Alvaton, Ky.
- Jacob Settles: Freshman, Winchester, Ky.
- Gavin Clutts: Freshman, Hazard, Ky.
- Solomon Petrie: RS-Sophomore, Akron, Ohio (Individual)
Competing Schools (14): Army, Campbell, Florida, Georgia Southern, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Middle Tennessee, Notre Dame, UAB, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Yale
For the latest on UK Men’s Golf follow the Wildcats on X and Instagram @UKmensgolf, and online at ukathletics.com.
