Photo by: Collin Phillips/Ball State Athletics
Defending MAC Champions Announce 2024-25 Men's Golf Schedule
August 01, 2024 | Men's Golf
MUNCIE, Ind. -- Riding the momentum of a Mid-American Conference championship and a trip to the 2024 NCAA Regionals, the Ball State men's golf team announces its 2024-25 schedule with plans for a return to NCAA competition.
The Cardinals return a Core Four of Kash Bellar, Ali Khan, Braxton Kuntz and Carter Smith who started every event during Ball State's highly successful campaign last season. Each bears distinction as the Cardinals' top golfer during critical moments of the 2023-24 season. The three seniors and one junior, Smith, have high hopes of elevating Ball State's national golf profile. A pair of highly anticipated newcomers could also break the lineup this season --Â transfer Avery Mahoney, the runner-up as the MAC's Freshman of the Year last spring, and former Bloomington South prep star Happy Gilmore.
Ball State's schedule, already competitive nationally last year while playing a host of events at top venues against national caliber foes including 2024 NCAA champ Auburn, repeats much of the same pattern in 2024-25. Head Coach Mike Fleck, the reigning MAC Coach of the Year who begins his 27th season leading his alma mater, places a premium on playing top teams at top venues.
Ball State opens Sept. 8-10 at Bryan National Golf Club in North Carolina as part of the Bryan National Collegiate, hosted by national power UNC Greensboro. it is the first of two events Ball State will play next year that are hosted by the Spartans. Two weeks later, the Cardinals visit nearby West Lafayette for the Purdue Fall Invite, and a week later they travel to Wisconsin for the Badger Invitational. Ball State wraps its fall slate with October trips to the Little Rock Invitational in a return engagement from last year, and the White Sands Bahamas Invitational conducted at Ocean Club Golf Course on Paradise Island.
The Cardinals open a spring schedule by hosting their annual match play event in South Florida, welcoming eight MAC and Atlantic-10 Conference teams to the MAC/A-10 Challenge at Lake Jovita Golf & Country Club, Feb. 10-11. February closes with another annual staple in the Ball State schedule when the Cardinals visit Puerto Rico for the Dorado Beach Collegiate, hosted by UNCG. Ball State set program records last year with their best 18- and 36-hole scores while finishing second in a rain-shortened event at Dorado Beach.
The schedule kicks into high gear in April, with Ball State visiting Vanderbilt for the Mason Rudolph Championship, April 4-6. A week later, Ball State hosts a new, one-day local event at Delaware Country Club on April 14 - the Red Bird Shootout. The Cardinals visit Purdue again for the Boilermaker Invitational, April 19-20, and they defend their conference title to close the month, April 25-27, when Bowling Green hosts the MAC Championship at Pinnacle Golf Club in Grove City, Ohio.
NCAA Regionals are conducted the second week of May, with the NCAA Championships slated the final week of May.
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The Cardinals return a Core Four of Kash Bellar, Ali Khan, Braxton Kuntz and Carter Smith who started every event during Ball State's highly successful campaign last season. Each bears distinction as the Cardinals' top golfer during critical moments of the 2023-24 season. The three seniors and one junior, Smith, have high hopes of elevating Ball State's national golf profile. A pair of highly anticipated newcomers could also break the lineup this season --Â transfer Avery Mahoney, the runner-up as the MAC's Freshman of the Year last spring, and former Bloomington South prep star Happy Gilmore.
Ball State's schedule, already competitive nationally last year while playing a host of events at top venues against national caliber foes including 2024 NCAA champ Auburn, repeats much of the same pattern in 2024-25. Head Coach Mike Fleck, the reigning MAC Coach of the Year who begins his 27th season leading his alma mater, places a premium on playing top teams at top venues.
Ball State opens Sept. 8-10 at Bryan National Golf Club in North Carolina as part of the Bryan National Collegiate, hosted by national power UNC Greensboro. it is the first of two events Ball State will play next year that are hosted by the Spartans. Two weeks later, the Cardinals visit nearby West Lafayette for the Purdue Fall Invite, and a week later they travel to Wisconsin for the Badger Invitational. Ball State wraps its fall slate with October trips to the Little Rock Invitational in a return engagement from last year, and the White Sands Bahamas Invitational conducted at Ocean Club Golf Course on Paradise Island.
The Cardinals open a spring schedule by hosting their annual match play event in South Florida, welcoming eight MAC and Atlantic-10 Conference teams to the MAC/A-10 Challenge at Lake Jovita Golf & Country Club, Feb. 10-11. February closes with another annual staple in the Ball State schedule when the Cardinals visit Puerto Rico for the Dorado Beach Collegiate, hosted by UNCG. Ball State set program records last year with their best 18- and 36-hole scores while finishing second in a rain-shortened event at Dorado Beach.
The schedule kicks into high gear in April, with Ball State visiting Vanderbilt for the Mason Rudolph Championship, April 4-6. A week later, Ball State hosts a new, one-day local event at Delaware Country Club on April 14 - the Red Bird Shootout. The Cardinals visit Purdue again for the Boilermaker Invitational, April 19-20, and they defend their conference title to close the month, April 25-27, when Bowling Green hosts the MAC Championship at Pinnacle Golf Club in Grove City, Ohio.
NCAA Regionals are conducted the second week of May, with the NCAA Championships slated the final week of May.
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