TOWSON, Md. – The 53^rd season of Towson University men's golf team begins at the Southern Invitational in Lake Worth, Florida on Monday, March 1. Loyola hosts the two-day event, held at the Falls Club of the Palm Beaches.

Head coach Mike Larkin, now in his fourth season, has a nine-person team this spring with five returnees and four newcomers, including three transfers.

"When I first came in, you had a clear number one and number two guy. Everyone else was at that next level down," Larkin said. "Now it feels like everybody is in the mix for who is going to be that number one or number two guy and that makes for an exciting spring for us."

Overall, the Tigers will compete in five events this spring, including the 2021 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament at the Dataw Island Club in Beaufort, SC. The three-round tournament takes place April 25-27.
 
In absence of intercollegiate competition last fall, Larkin created The Towson Cup, where the team competed in nine rounds of golf at four different courses during a 21-day period. Rick van der Nat, one of four fresh faces, edged holdovers Justin Griffith, Brad Riley and Jackson Courtney to earn the title.
 
"We were restricted in what we could do but I think we made the best of it," added Larkin. "The key thing was to get the guys around to as many different great golf courses in the area as we could. We are really lucky to have great relationships with a lot of the clubs and different golf professionals around here were very gracious in hosting us."
 
With the help of donors, Larkin was able to purchase a TrackMan launch monitor before the team arrived back to campus in January. TrackMan is considered the most accurate piece of technology designed for the sole purpose of improving a golf swing. A launch monitor is a piece of equipment that provides precise analytics on what happens to a golf ball when it is struck by a club. One of the radars tracks the club head and impact, while the other focuses on the flight of the ball after impact. The golf radar can be used outdoors as well as indoor in a golf simulator environment.
 
"We didn't get to have a normal fall, tournament wise, and now we are the middle of a bad weather stretch, so the TrackMan has changed things so dramatically for us in what we are able to do indoors when we practice," Larkin said. "A good example is working on wedge distances - being able to talk to the guys about ball speed. Watching what the ball speed is on a 50-yard wedge, a 60-yard wedge, a 100- yard wedge and then having the guys practice that and get some real worthwhile practice on wedge distances gives us a chance at coming out of a snow-filled winter in a much better position when we go tee it up in Florida."

The senior leadership provided by Courtney and Derek Gold has impressed Larkin. Courtney has qualified for 22 of the 26 events and he has produced six rounds of playing to par or better, including a pair of 70's. Gold has battled back from three ACL surgeries to play in seven career events. He shot a career-best 73 at the Towson Invitational in October 2019.

"It has been fun to watch them grow since we arrived together in the fall 2017," Larkin said. "Watching them now as seniors and seeing them taking over the leadership of the team has been great. Each brings a different quality to it but they tag team together and it is working."

Griffith, a junior, has made the travel roster in each of the 16 events since arriving on campus. The Pittsburgh native was Towson's top finisher in two of five spring events as a freshman and he shot a career-low 70 at the Fort Lauderdale Intercollegiate tournament last March.

"Justin has been in the facility more than anyone so far this season. He is just tenacious right now on where he wants to be, what he wants to accomplish, where he wants his golf swing," Larkin said. "We do a driving test as a team. He has certainly filled out since his freshman year, so we knew there would be improvement but all of a sudden his ball speed went from the bottom of the roster in terms of ball speed and carry distance with the driver to second behind Jeremy (Summerson).  It shows how much work he has put in. I am excited for Justin."

Larkin has a pair of talented sophomores in Riley and Jeremy Summerson. Both golfers averaged 74.0 in five tournaments during their freshman campaigns.

Riley led the Tigers with six eagles and was the team's top performer at the Doc Gimmler Invitational when he shot a career-low 69 in the final round. He matched that in the first round of the Elon Phoenix Invitational.

"We have been working on driving accuracy in the TrackMan and Brad led the team with a 94.9 score," Larkin commented. "He has worked hard to improve his game."

As has Summerson, who was Towson's top performer at the Fort Lauderdale Intercollegiate tournament last spring. He shot par four times, including a career-low 70 at the Doc Gimmler Invitational, and broke par at the difficult Pete Dye Golf Club in West Virginia.

"Jeremy is by far the longest hitter on our team and that gap seems to be increasing," Larkin added. "We were looking at a 186 miles per hour ball speed the other day on the launch monitor. Just a few days earlier, it was 178. His distance is becoming more of a strength. He is working hard in the weight room and just crushing the ball."

The four newcomers to the squad are transfers student-athletes van der Nat, Julian Gonzalez, Jairus Gaines and freshman Branden Nguyen.  

At Iowa Western Community College, van der Nat had three top 15 finishes during his sophomore season and a year earlier placed in the top-10 twice, including the NJCAA District III Championships when he shot 69. The native of the Netherlands has six dates of competition to sit out before competing, so he will miss the first two tournaments of the season.

"He could very well be that number one or number two guy," Larkin stated. "He has a lot of friends playing on the European Tour, so he has seen things that some of the other guys haven't seen and gotten that different look. What is the proper strategy to shoot the lowest scores, how you need to practice, what are the things you need to practice. Rick brings a different level of maturity about the way to do things the right way."

A two-time Costa Rican national champion, Gonzalez played two seasons at nearby Goucher College. As a freshman, he won two tournaments, including the Landmark Conference Preview. That season he had a 71.38 scoring average and earned Division III All-America Honorable Mention honors. A shoulder injury limited his performance last season.

"I am really excited for Julian," Larkin said. "He had a great start to his career at Goucher then got sidelined by an injury. He is healthy and so anxious to compete again."

Gaines, a Gilman School graduate, played two seasons at Hampton. He finished t-11th at the rain-shortened 2019 Towson Fall Invitational at Prospect Bay, shooting a round of 73.

Like Courtney and Gold, Nguyen is a Howard County product. At Atholton High School, he led the county in scoring during his junior and senior seasons and reached the state championships all four years.