Englund has eyes set on Nationals appearance for SAU men’s golf

LAURINBURG —The St. Andrews men’s golf team is heading into their second season of competition this fall under Head Coach Greg Englund after he was hired in January. There were certainly some positives to take away from their results during the spring season as they got third at the Appalachian Athletic Conference Championship in April, finishing one stroke ahead of fourth place Reinhardt, 21 behind Tennessee Wesleyan and 29 behind AAC champion Truett-McConnell.

Englund was pleased with his group’s performance at their conference championships, calling it their “best tournament” of the season as far as scores were concerned. For this upcoming season, he has his sights set on at least second place in the conference, which would secure a spot for the team in the National Championships. In the short term, he understands that the best approach is to take things step by step as they ultimately prepare for Oct. 28.

“Second place puts us in the National Championship so we’re only one spot out,” Englund said. “We just got to keep working and focus one day at a time so we can put out best foot forward.”

This is going to be a pretty young team with four freshmen and four sophomores compared to just three upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) on the roster. That being said, Englund feels good about the experience this group has gained through the spring season as they move forward for the fall campaign.

“It’s not going to hurt that’s for sure, the experience that the sophomores got last year will be good,” Englund said. “When they’ve played in these tournaments before it’s just less nerves, more comfort and you’re going to be able to perform better.”

Englund particularly mentioned senior Matthew Lefebvre as someone he’s excited to watch. Lefebvre was the Knights’ best performer last season and played like it during the AAC Championship, registering scores of 75, 79 and 75 over the three rounds, which put him in a tie for eighth overall in the conference.

He also pointed out two freshmen who are coming to St. Andrews from out of the country in Joe Stevenson (Northern Ireland) and Kai Raymond (UK) as ones he’s eager to see in action. Englund said much of the team has improved over the summer from competing in South Africa or France in the case of the international players and in local competition for the others.

Englund played amateur golf in Portland, Oregon, meaning he is familiar with what it takes to be successful in a sport that is known to be quite unforgiving. Many people like to go crush some golf balls off a tee at a driving range but don’t have the patience to work on the other aspects of the game. Englund reiterated this point when discussing the importance of the short game to one’s success.

“You have to work on your short game a lot,” Englund said. “Everybody likes to go hit golf balls but that’s not where you score, it’s not fun sitting around putting for two hours but you have to if you want to be successful.”

The team will begin their season on Monday for a two-day event at the Coastal Georgia Fall Invitational. Despite being their first official competition of the fall, Englund said it will likely be among the best group of teams his squad will face all season. Their full season schedule can be found on the St. Andrews Athletics website: 2024-25 Men’s Golf Schedule - St. Andrews University (sauknights.com) .