Little Rock Heads to Mystic Creek For Final Sun Belt Championship

2022 SUN BELT CHAMPIONSHIP
Dates	Sunday, Apr. 24 - Wednesday, Apr. 27
Format	Stroke play Sunday - Tuesday Match play Wednesday
Times	8:30 a.m. tee times each day from holes one and 10
Location	El Dorado, Ark.
Course	Mystic Creek Golf Club
Teams (12)	Little Rock, App State, Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Louisiana, South Alabama, Texas State, Troy, ULM, UT Arlington
Watch	ESPN+
Scoring	GolfStat.com
Championship Central	SunBeltSports.org

2021-22 Little Rock Men's Golf Statistics (PDF)
 
Opening Tee
Little Rock closes out the regular season making the short trip down to Mystic Creek, competing in its final Sun Belt Championship Sunday through Wednesday.
 
Tournament Information
The 2022 Sun Belt Championship will be held at Mystic Creek Golf Club, a par-72, 7,293-yard course in El Dorado, Arkansas. The format will remain the same with 54 holes of stroke play Sunday through Tuesday, beginning each day with 8:30 a.m. tee times from holes one and 10. The top four teams will then advance to the match play championship on Wednesday, beginning at 8:30 a.m. with the semifinals and the finals following the conclusion. The event will be streamed live on ESPN+ with live scoring available at GolfStat.com.
 
Tournament Field
All 12 Sun Belt programs will compete in this year's event with Little Rock entering the championship event as the number one overall seed at number 44 in the latest GolfStat rankings, just ahead of Georgia Southern at number 46. South Alabama (No. 86), Arkansas State (No. 91) and ULM (No. 98) are all currently ranked in the top-100 with 11 of the 12 programs sitting among the top-150.
 
Trojan Lineup
Little Rock head coach Jake Harrington will bring an experienced field to El Dorado as four of the five competed in last year's event, headed by senior Anton Albers, the top-ranked golfer in the Sun Belt. Magnus Lomholt, Nico Horder and Marcel Rauch all return to Mystic Creek with junior Jansen Smith rounding out the Trojan scorecard and Archie Smith serving as the alternate.
 
Last Year's Event
Little Rock set a new program best at the 2021 Sun Belt Championship, finishing second in stroke play and advancing to the match play championship before falling to Georgia Southern 3-1-1. The Trojans posted a 46-over 910 during stroke play, finishing second to the Eagles, then bested ULM 3-1-1 in the semifinal round of match play. Individually, Anton Albers and Logan Pate paced the Trojans, tying for ninth at 11-over 227, with Nico Horder finishing tied for 17th at 14-over 230.
 
Last Time Out
Anton Albers posted his seventh top-10 individual finish, tying for eighth at the Aggie Invitational with a 7-over 223 at the Traditions Course, an NCAA regional site for 2022. The effort from Albers paced the Trojans to an eighth-place showing against an extremely competitive field, shooting a 52-over 916 and finishing five shots out of a tie for fourth. Nico Horder also recorded a top-20 individual showing, tying for 19th with a 12-over 228.
 
Last Trip Around the Sun
This week's event marks Little Rock's final conference tournament as a member of the Sun Belt Conference, ending a 31-year run as a league member. The Trojans are tied for the second-longest tenured members of the league, joining the same time as Arkansas State and Louisiana, and have finished in the top-five of the conference meet 11 times, including a pair of conference titles in 2000 and 2001 and three runner-up finishes (1994, 1995 and 2021). Little Rock will join the Ohio Valley Conference on July 1, 2022.
 
National Rankings
Heading into this week's Sun Belt Championship, Little Rock is ranked 44th in the latest GolfStat rankings, sitting as the number one ranked team in the Sun Belt, ahead of Georgia Southern at number 46. Individually, Little Rock has two golfers among the national top-250, led by Anton Albers at number 39 and Magnus Lomholt at number 240. The number 39 ranking for Albers has him as the highest ranked golfer in the conference and currently would make him the third-highest ranked golfer in program history behind Daniel Fox in 2000-01 (No. 20) and Patrick Sullivan in 2004-05 (No. 31).
 
Record Watch
Heading into the final tournament before the Sun Belt Championship, Little Rock has a handful of program marks within its sights. As a team, the Trojans boast a team scoring average of 286.89, which would currently be the lowest in program history just ahead of the program-record 286.97 set in 2018-19. Individually, Anton Albers boasts a scoring average of 70.42, which would currently put him first in program history ahead of Justin Warren's 71.41 average in 2018-19. Magnus Lomholt's 71.78 average and Jansen Smith's 72.42 average would both rank among the top-10 all-time, currently ranking fourth and eighth all-time after joining Albers' mark.
 
Going Low
Little Rock has seen a number of impressive performances this season as the team has combined for 65 individual rounds of par-or-better, led by 18 from Anton Albers, which currently ranks fifth in program history. Albers has recorded par-or-better scores in 18 of his 24 rounds this season, scoring in the 60s 10 times. Magnus Lomholt has notched 17 par-or-better rounds, scoring in the 60s five times, with Jansen Smith posting 13 par-or-better rounds with seven rounds in the 60s.
 
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