TOWSON, Md. – The Towson men's golf team will play its second tournament of the 2021 spring campaign this weekend at The Carpetbagger Classic in Urbana, Md. The two-day event will take place at Worthington Manor Golf Club in Frederick County on Saturday and Sunday with a 9:30 shotgun start both days.

Head coach Mike Larkin selected Jeremy Summerson, Jackson Courtney and Justin Griffith with his Coach's Picks. The three were the highest Towson finishers at the Southern Invitational earlier this month.

The other two spots were up for grabs with a three-round qualifying tournament held at Eagle's Nest Country Club last week. Julian Gonzalez grabbed the top spot, shooting 222, which included a two-under par 70 in the final round under windy conditions last Sunday. Brad Riley (227) earned the fifth spot for the Carpetbagger, beating Derek Gold by three strokes. Gold will play as an individual this weekend.

The Carpetbagger features 10 teams – Binghamton, Bryant, Bucknell, Fairleigh Dickinson, Iona, Lafayette, Mount St. Mary's, Navy, Robert Morris and Towson. A total of 80 players will compete, including individuals. 
Towson is scheduled to play in four additional tournaments in March and April: Furman Invitational (March 26-28), Fairleigh Dickinson Invitational (April 2-3), Abarta Collegiate Invitational (April 18-19) and the Colonial Athletic Association Championship (April 25-27).

THE VETERAN
Jackson Courtney has now qualified for 24 of the 28 events during his Towson career. The senior has produced six rounds of playing to par or better, including a pair of 70's.

TOURNAMENT TESTED   
Junior Justin Griffith has made the travel roster in each of the 18 events, including the Carpetbagger, since arriving on campus. The Pittsburgh native was Towson's top finisher in two of five spring events as a freshman and shot a career-low 70 at the Fort Lauderdale Intercollegiate tournament last March.
 
IDENTICAL TWINS?    
Sophomores Brad Riley and Jeremy Summerson both averaged 74.0 in five tournaments during their freshman campaigns. Riley, who was named Player of the Year by The Washington Post as a senior after winning the state championship, made six eagles during the fall 2019. Summerson, a long hitter from upstate New York, had five rounds of par of better during his first season.

INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR     
Two of the three transfers on the 2021 team, Rick van der Nat and Julian Gonzalez are international students. A native of the Netherlands van der Nat had three top 15 finishes during his sophomore season at Iowa Western Community College and a year earlier placed in the top-10 twice, including the NJCAA District III Championships when he shot 69. 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.

WELCOME HOME    
The third transfer, Jairus Gaines, 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. A Gilman School graduate, Gaines finished second in the MIAA championship as a senior.

HOWARD COUNTY'S FINEST
One-third of the 2021 team hails from nearby Howard County. Jackson Courtney was part of a Marriotts Ridge team that compiled a 44-0 record over four years. He tied the county record for lowest nine holes (four under par), won county championship and finished second in the state and district championships in the fall of 2016 as a senior. Derek Gold finished second to Courtney in 2016 and won the county championship a year earlier while at River Hill. He was an individual state qualifier as a freshman and senior. At Atholton High, Branden Nguyen led the county in scoring during his junior and senior seasons and reached the state championships all four years.
 
DOWN MEMORY LANE
Four current golfers teed it up in the 2016 Maryland Public School State championship. Courtney was the runner-up after rounds of 77-71 at the University of Maryland Golf Course. Gold (73-84) finished in a tie for 17^th, Riley (78-83) finished tied for 25^th, while Nguyen (83-83) was 41^st.

STUDENT-ATHLETES
During the fall semester, the Towson men's golf team had the highest GPA among men's programs with a 3.411 and has the highest cumulative men's GPA at 3.390. Derek Gold earned a perfect 4.0 GPA, while Jeremy Summerson (3.976), Julian Gonzalez (3.85), Branden Nguyen (3.8), Justin Griffith (3.55) and Rick van der Nat (3.5) all earned Dean's List honors.

CAREER-BEST ROUNDS    
Below is the collegiate low round for each member of the Towson golf team. Gaines, van der Nat and Gonzalez produced their scored at other institutions. Nguyen has yet to compete:
 

• Julian Gonzalez                69           Sept. 23, 2018 & Oct. 6, 2018
• Rick van der Nat               69           May 14, 2019
• Brad Riley                         69           Sept. 15, 2019 & Oct. 14, 2019
• Jackson Courtney             70           Sept. 22, 2018 & Apr. 7, 2019
• Justin Griffith                     70           Mar. 3, 2020
• Jeremy Summerson          70           Sept. 14, 2019
• Jairus Gaines                    71           Sept. 27, 2019
• Derek Gold                        73           Oct. 19, 2019

 DID YOU KNOW?    
Towson head coach Mike Larkin finished ahead of both PGA Tour standouts Kevin Kisner and Luke List at the 2005 NCAA Division I Men's Golf East Regionals. Larkin, playing as the No. 3 player for Towson behind Hall of Famers Billy Wingerd and Jeff Castle, shot rounds of 71-73-72 for a three-over par 216 to finish in a tie for 48^th place, beating Kisner (Georgia) by a stroke and List (Vanderbilt) by two. Coastal Carolina's Dustin Johnson, now the No. 1 ranked player in the world, won the event, shooting 15-under. The field also included PGA Tour standouts Webb Simpson (Wake Forest), Brendon Todd (Georgia) and Jeff Overton (Indiana).
 
TIGERS IN THE COMMUNITY    
The Towson University athletics department deems community service as one of its highest priorities to give back to the Greater Baltimore area. Towson was on track to have its 8th consecutive year of over 10,000 hours of community service in 2019-20 before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all activity.  Towson finished with 7,527 hours last year, good for third in the NCAA Teamworks HelperHelper competition. Towson ranked #1 nationally for community service and won the 2018 National Championship for Community Service through the HelperHelper NCAA Team Works Competition.  Towson also won the 2018 Volunteer of the Year Award from Susan G. Komen of Maryland.