Trojans Set to Host 28th Annual Little Rock Invitational at Chenal C.C.

2020 Little Rock Invitational
Dates	Monday, Oct. 19 - Tuesday, Oct. 20
Format	36 holes Monday, 18 holes Tuesday
Times	8 a.m. shotgun start both days
Location	Little Rock, Ark.
Course	Chenal Country Club
Teams (14)	Little Rock (host), Abilene Christian, Arkansas State, Central Arkansas, Lamar, Louisiana, Louisiana Tech, Missouri State, South Alabama, Southern Illinois, Southern Miss, Texas State, ULM, UT Arlington
Scoring	GolfStat.com
Fact Sheet	Little Rock Invitational (PDF)

2020-21 Little Rock Men's Golf Statistics (PDF)

Opening Tee
Little Rock is set to host its annual host tournament at Chenal Country Club, serving as the host institution for the 2020 Little Rock Invitational Monday, October 19 and Tuesday, October 20.
 
Little Rock Invitational
This week's event is the 28th installment of the annual tournament at Chenal, dating back to 1994. The yearly event draws teams from all over to central Arkansas, showing off one of the best courses the Little Rock area has to offer. The Trojans have won the event a record eight times, the most recent of which came in 2017. Southeastern Louisiana ranks second with four tournament titles, followed by Lamar with three victories.
 
Tournament Information
The 2020 Little Rock Invitational will have a slight change this year, being played on the Founder's Course at Chenal Country Club – a par-72, 7,115-yard layout. The 54-hole event will be played over two days, beginning with an 8 a.m. shotgun start on Monday as the teams will play two rounds. Tuesday's final round also begins with an 8 a.m. shotgun start. This week's event will be a 6-score-4 tournament with teams playing together in the daily groupings. Live scoring is available at GolfStat.com.
 
Tournament Field
14 teams will compete in this year's Little Rock Invitational as the Trojans will welcome six Sun Belt Conference schools to central Arkansas, comprised of Arkansas State, Louisiana, South Alabama, Texas State, ULM and UT Arlington. The rival Red Wolves are the highest ranked team in the field at number 55 in the GolfStat rankings with ULM (No. 93), South Alabama (No. 94) and Little Rock (No. 101) the top four rated teams in the field.
 
Trojan Lineup
Little Rock's six-man lineup will see Logan Pate, Anton Albers and Magnus Lomholt among the number one group for the Trojans with Nico Horder, Marcel Rauch and Vid Potocar in the number two group with Rauch making his season debut. Hunter Walker and Ryan McNelis will also compete as individuals with McNelis making his collegiate debut.
 

Golfer	Rds.	Strokes	Avg.	Low	Par-	10/20
Logan Pate	6	440	73.33	67	1	1/0
Anton Albers	6	438	73.00	69	2	1/1
Magnus Lomholt	6	442	73.67	71	1	0/2
Nico Horder	6	448	74.67	70	1	0/1
Marcel Rauch	--	--	--	--	--	--/--
Vid Potocar	6	468	78.00	74	0	0/0

 
Last Year at Chenal
The 2019 event was one of the most competitive in recent history as Illinois State and Campbell both tied for the team title after 54 holes with the Redbirds winning on a playoff hole. Little Rock finished fourth at 16-over 880 after leading the field after round one and sitting tied for second after 36 holes. Marcel Rauch was the Trojans' top finisher last year, tying for 14th at 3-over 219 while Anton Albers tied for 18th with a 4-over 220.
 
Last Time Out
Little Rock made an impressive showing at the Scenic City Collegiate in Ooltewah, Tennessee, tying for third against a competitive field at the Honors Course. The Trojans were tied for first after 36 holes of play but slipped into a tie for third, finishing behind a pair of top-50 ranked teams in UAB and East Tennessee State. Logan Pate was Little Rock's top finisher, tying for seventh at 5-over 221, highlighted by a 5-under 67 in round two, the lowest individual round of the tournament. Magnus Lomholt and Anton Albers both tied for 12th (8-over 224) while Nico Horder placed 16th with an 11-over 227.
 
Closing in on 100
Entering this week's yearly event at Chenal, Logan Pate sits at 97 career rounds played in a Little Rock uniform and should log his 100th career round Tuesday. Pate would become the 14th Trojan to play 100 rounds in a Little Rock uniform and the first since Alfred Kerstis (2011-15). Depending on how the spring season plays out, the fifth-year player has a chance of catching both Felipe Velazquez (2007-11) and Luke Bakke (1999-04) for the most career rounds played at 118.
 
Moving Up
Little Rock has seen a steady improvement under head coach Jake Harrington in the seven seasons since he has taken the reigns of the Trojan golf program. Inheriting a team that was ranked in the 200s in the GolfStat rankings, Little Rock has improved into the low 100s over the past few seasons, finishing at number 100 in 2019-20, 101 in 2019-20, 102 in 2016-17 and 108 in 2015-16. Little Rock's fall 2019 season was one that showed the improvement the Trojans had made, heading into the break at number 65, its highest ranking since the 2000-01 season.
 
Global Impact
Little Rock's 2020-21 roster spans the globe as six different countries are represented by #LittleRocksTeam. This year's Trojan squad is comprised of three players from Germany (Anton Albers, Nico Horder and Marcel Rauch) and one each from Denmark (Magnus Lomholt), Northern Ireland (Ryan McNelis), Slovenia (Vid Potocar) and South Africa (Devon Whitaker). Little Rock's two U.S. players hail from the states of Texas (Logan Pate) and Arkansas (Hunter Walker).
 
#LittleRocksTeam