What the USC Aiken golf team has worked for all season long is now right in front of them.
The Pacers will be in action this weekend at the Peach Belt Conference Championship, a three-day, 54-hole tournament beginning Friday at Forest Hills Golf Club in Augusta.
"Well, we've been working pretty hard, playing, trying to get better for the Peach Belt tournament," USCA head coach Michael Carlisle said of his team's preparations. "... We're just trying to get ready for the conference championship and hopefully for the postseason, so that's basically it."
USCA is looking for its first PBC title since 2018, which was the 12th in program history. The Pacers picked up a tournament win back in February at the Wexford Intercollegiate, and since tying for seventh at the Palmetto Intercollegiate they've added a tie for ninth at Georgia College's Bobcat Invitational and a seventh-place finish at the Wofford Invitational.
Sophomore Karl Frisk was named PBC Player of the Week after tying for 14th in a Division I field at the Wofford Invitational. Frisk ranks third on the team in scoring average at at 73.3, less than a shot behind fellow sophomore Erik Olin (72.5) and lone senior Leonardo Bono (72.7).
It's been a tight battle each week to see who cracks the roster for the Pacers, who have six different players who have appeared in at least six tournaments. One of those is sophomore Jonah Winter, who has an average score of 74.3 in 17 tournament rounds after making his USCA debut in last season's NCAA South/Southeast Regional.
"Jonah Winter has played a little bit more than I thought he would," Carlisle said. "He'd be about the only one. The rest of them either have played about like what we thought or maybe not quite as good, so nothing that incredibly positive that's surprising, really."
Spectators are welcome at the PBC Championship, with no cost to attend.
USCA has plenty of experience at nearby Forest Hills, including back in September at the season-opening Bearcat Invitational. The Pacers finished in fifth that week, with Bono and junior Oscar Abrahamsson leading the way individually. Those two program veterans have played more competitive rounds than anyone on the roster, and they'll be counted on to extend the season at a familiar course.
"Just being close to home makes it a little bit easier on everybody, I feel like," Carlisle said. "You get to sleep in your own bed, so hopefully that will be a good thing for us, too. I think our teams knows the golf course pretty well. We played it once in the fall, and I think we've played it on occasion every now and then during the year, too. We should be as familiar with the golf course as anybody is."
North Georgia won at Forest Hills back in the fall, and the Nighthawks may be the favorite at No. 4 in the most recent Bushnell/Golfweek DII Coaches Poll. Georgia Southwestern is ranked ninth, Clayton State is 10th and Lander is 25th. Columbus State and USCA also received votes.
