The Florida A&M golf team will play in its first tournament of the spring season this on Feb. 20.
FAMU golf will participate in the Frito-Lay/AT&T Intercollegiate in Philadelphia, Miss. The tournament will be played at The Azaleas at Dancing Rabbit Golf Club. The Azaleas is known to be a tough course.
“You have to know how to hit all your shots,” coach Marvin Green said. “You can’t just pull out a driver on every hole and hit it as far you can.”
Junior Shephard Archie III had similar thoughts.”With the setup of some of the par fours, you can’t hit with your driver out there. You have to place the ball,” Archie said.
The Azaleas at Dancing Rabbit is the number two ranked golf course in Mississippi. The course is ranked number 18 in the country.
In addition to Archie, senior Elijah Jackson participated in the tournament last year. Archie finished first as an individual in the tournament. FAMU finished fourth in the tournament as a team.
Archie has been preparing himself and helping his teammates prepare for the tough course.
“I’m telling everybody to work on their short game,” Archie said. “That’s what won it for me last year.”
FAMU has two young golfers playing in the tournament. Randon Holt and James Coonce are both freshmen playing on this course for the first time. Jackson shared some of the advice he has been giving the two freshmen.
“Don’t get discouraged,” Jackson said. “It might be a long day. You have a lot of golf to play.”
Weather has been a factor in the tournament in the past. Green said that course was cold and windy. Jackson and Archie said that wetness was an issue with the course last year.
“Balls weren’t getting a lot of roll. That made the course longer than what it actually was,” Archie said.
The weather is not predicted to be as much of a factor in the tournament this year. The Weather Channel forecast predicts that there will be a 10 percent chance of rain on both days of the tournament. The lows are predicted to be in the mid 50s and the highs are predicted to be in the 70s.
The Frito-Lay/AT&T Intercollegiate is hosted by Jackson State University. The tournament will be held on Sunday Feb. 20 and Monday Feb. 21. FAMU’s next tournament will be in the Bethune-Cookman University Spring Invitational on Feb. 25.