ORLANDO – In its first season as a member of the Big 12 Conference, the UCF men’s golf team will compete in this year’s Big 12 Match Play Tournament, which will be held Monday, Oct. 9 through Wednesday, Oct. 11 at The Clubs at Houston Oaks Golf Club in Hockley, Texas.
Instead of playing a traditional 18 holes, which is used for stroke play, the Big 12 Match Play Tournament will feature a head-to-head matchup for each player in the lineup. All individual matches within the team match will produce a result (3&2, 1 up, halved) and will not be played beyond the 18th hole.
An individual match win awards that team with one point. An individual match that remains tied after 18 holes awards each team with a half point. Once all individual matches are completed within a team match, the team with the greater point total will receive three points while the losing team receives zero points.
If the match is tied at the end of all five individual matches (2.5 points to 2.5 points), both teams receive one point.
Each of the conference’s 14 teams sponsor men’s golf and will take part in the event, which will be held at the par-71, 7,007-yard Houston Oaks. The course was ranked No. 2 in Texas by the Dallas Morning News and also tabbed among the top 100 golf courses in Texas.
UCF is in pool C along with Baylor, Iowa State and TCU. The Knights take on Baylor in their first match on Monday at 7:45 a.m. CT/8:45 a.m. ET and TCU in the second match at 1:15 p.m. CT/2:25 p.m. ET Monday. On Tuesday, the Black and Gold battle Iowa State at 7:45 a.m. CT/8:45 a.m. ET.
The tournament will be played over three days consisting of pool play for one-and-a-half days (three sessions) followed by a bracket beginning on the morning of day three. The final round will be played during the afternoon of day three. Match Play will be played during all rounds. Each team match will consist of five individual matches.
This lineup was made by a coach’s selection for each spot in the lineup. This decision was based off the totality of each players World Amateur Golf Ranking, UCF tournament play, UCF practice evaluation rounds, daily team range practice, team workouts, attitude, academic standing, and overall effort/results. Gustav Andersson, Garret Ebbert, Egor Eroshenko, Nicholas Estrada, Chase Haygood and Hans Risvaer will represent the Knights in their first edition of the event.