Championship Central | Leaderboard
ORLANDO – The UCF men's golf team is set for the 2023 American Athletic Conference Championship, held Friday, April 21 through Sunday, April 23 at the Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida. The Knights are the No. 3 seed in the championship and will tee off starting at 10:10 a.m. Friday morning.
As one of the conference's top-three seeds, UCF is grouped with No. 2 seed Houston and top-seeded Cincinnati. SMU is No. 4, while Memphis and South Florida are No. 5 and No. 6, respectively. East Carolina, Wichita State and Temple round out the field as seeds seven through nine.
The teams will play three 18-hole rounds at the par-70, 6,881-yard course.
Live coverage of the third and final round on Sunday will air on ESPN+ at approximately 10:50 a.m.
For the first time in conference history, the championship will be held at the Pelican Golf Club after it was contested at the Southern Hills Plantation Club in each of the previous two years. Originally opened in 1925 and designed by renowned golf course architect Donald Ross, the course was renovated in 2017, designed with inspiration from Donald Ross' original layout. Pelican Golf Club was host to "The Match" in 2022 and has hosted LGPA Tour events over the past three years.
The course is the first location on the west coast of Florida to have Latitude 36 Bermudagrass on all fairways, ensuring gorgeous grounds all season long. It was designed with uninterrupted rough with greens and tees maintained at the highest levels.
The Knights' lineup features Luis Carrera, Johnny Travale, Markus Braadlie, Egor Eroshenko and Chase Haygood.
UCF finished fourth last season with an 858 (-6) team score, headlined by Teddy Tetak, Travale and Eroshenko finishing among the top 10 on the individual leaderboard.
The Knights are looking for their first AAC Championship after finishing among the top five in eight of the nine championships that have been contested. UCF last won a conference championship as a part of Conference USA in 2010-11.
Cincinnati enters the American Championship slotted No. 40 in the latest Golfstat team rankings on April 19 to pace the conference. Houston (49), UCF (71), SMU (76), Memphis (80) and South Florida (87) were also ranked among the top 100 teams entering the American Men's Golf Championship.
2023 AAC Championship Qualifying Information
- Luis Carrera has earned an exemption into the 2023 AAC Championship by finishing third in the 2023 Augusta Haskins Award Invitational and has also met the qualifying criteria by winning the four-round qualifier with a score of 2-under.
- Johnny Travale has qualified for the 2023 AAC Championship after finishing tied for 23rd in the 2023 Augusta Haskins Award Invitational.
- Markus Braadie has received a Coach's pick to compete in the 2023 AAC Championship.
- Egor Eroshenko has received a Coach's pick to compete in the 2023 AAC Championship.
- Chase Haygood has received a Coach's pick to compete in the 2023 AAC Championship.
Qualifying Criteria for the 2023 AAC Championship was the top-three qualifying scores in the four-round qualifier. In order to earn the exemption in the top three, you must have shot no worse than even par per round for a total of 288. Any one of the six players who has not met these criteria will rely on a coach's pick to compete in the 2023 AAC Championship.