UTC’s Success Attracts Attention of Golf Channel

The steady improvement of UTC’s golf team has begun to attract the attention of the national media.

The Golf Channel will feature the Mocs during an upcoming episode of its popular College Central show. The network will be in Chattanooga on Feb. 2 for an all-day shoot.

“It’s a huge recruiting tool for us,’’ said UTC assistant coach Mark Guhne. “You couldn’t pay for that kind of publicity. You’d better believe when we make a visit to a recruit, he’ll be getting a copy of the tape of that show.”

The Mocs had perhaps their most productive fall season ever, winning the Buffalo Rock Southern Showdown, their first tournament, and posting three other top-five finishes. UTC’s No. 1 player, Bryce Ledford, won twice and carried a 72.07 stroke average for the fall.

The Mocs’ freshman class also made an impact, finishing No. 22 in Golfstat’s Freshman Class Impact Rating. Rookies Gordon Strother (73.9 stroke average) and Anthony Reale (74.2) combined for the 11th-best stroke average among freshman classes in Division I. Both are former state high school champions, Strother in Georgia and Reale in West Virginia.

With still another state champion having signed a scholarship (Jefferson County High School’s Jonathan Hodge led his team to the Tennessee AAA title last fall) and Soddy’s Daisy’s Tripp Harris, who finished third in the state, joining the team next fall, the future looks bright. That’s the message Guhne would like to spread via the powerful medium of the Golf Channel.

“I think the reason the Golf Channel would even be interested in doing a show about us is that they know we’re getting things going up here,” Guhne said. “That’s the most exciting part about this—that the job we’ve done is beginning to get recognized.”

The Mocs start their spring season Feb. 14 at the Florida Southern Invitational in Lakeland, Fl.

—Chris Dortch