By: Colby Wilson, Associate Director of Athletics Communications
CLARKSVILLE—For a program with a long and distinguished history like Austin Peay State University men's golf, summer is not only a time to check in on what the current Govs are up to—it offers a chance to see what our alumni in the professional ranks have achieved.
Among active Govs, the summer months have been marked by some of the best golf of rising senior Austin Lancaster's career. The Hendersonville native has been a force across the amateur circuit, most recently defending his Clarksville City Amateur championship with a 63-70 at the event hosted jointly at The River Club and Swan Lake Golf Course. A week prior, he advanced to the quarterfinals in the 19th Tennessee Match Play Championship, before hitting the Choo Choo Invitational July 22-24 and picking up a sixth-place showing helped by an opening-round 68 and a final-round 69. Back in June, Lancaster held the first-round lead at the 71st Tennessee State Open.
Lancaster's fellow senior Michael Busse has been busy in his native Michigan, advancing to the quarterfinals of the 108th Michigan Amateur Championship. He also made an appearance at the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championships in Bandon, Oregon, partnering with Nicholas Bonema for a two-under opening-round effort.
Incoming Gov Tate Dickerson posted a top-10 finish at the 2019 Mississippi Junior Amateur last week, part of a summer that saw him earn his second high school championship in the state of Mississippi.
Austin Peay's incumbent leader's big moment is still ahead. Chase Korte—who took runner-up to Lancaster at the Clarksville City Amateur—received an exemption to compete in the 115th Canadian Amateur, Aug. 5-8, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is believed to be the first player in program history to compete for Canada's top individual amateur title.
In the professional ranks, Grant Leaver earned an exemption onto the Mackenzie Tour, the PGA's Canadian arm. In six starts he's made the weekend three times, including a top-25 finish at the GolfBC Championship at Kelowna back in June. Leaver also placed 25th at the Tennessee State Open before embarking on his trek north of the border.
On the Korn Ferry Tour (formerly the Web.com Tour), Erik Barnes has rallied after missing five-straight cuts to start the season. A sixth-place showing at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open in March kick-started his season, but a six-tournament stretch that included two top-20 finishes and a seventh-place showing at the TPC Colorado Championship has Barnes back inside the top-75 on the Korn Ferry Tour money list, which would exempt him onto the tour for another year in 2020.
Across the big pond, Marco Iten is getting back on track; his tie for 54th at the Euram Bank Open, July 21, is his season's best showing on the Challenge Tour, Europe's Korn Ferry Tour equivalent, featuring his first back-to-back rounds in the 60s in 2019.
