Men's Golf Announces 2021 Spring Schedule

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The East Carolina men's golf team will compete in six regular season events beginning in mid-February before starting postseason play at the American Athletic Conference in late April as part of its 2021 schedule announced head coach Andrew Sapp on Monday.

"Our players are chomping at the bit to get our season started," Sapp said. "We had a lot of guys play very well in tournaments over the semester break and we are hoping to build off that momentum. We have a mixture of new events with events we have played before in the past so it should be a fun Spring.

"We are a month away from our first tournament, so we have a lot of work to do to maintain our momentum as well as prepare our team for team competition again."

The Pirates will tee off the spring season on Kiawah Island (S.C.) at the Kiawah Invitational, Feb. 14-15, hosted by College of Charleston. This will be ECU's first tournament in the South Carolina low country in 1997.

ECU will play three tournaments in the month of March beginning with the Wake Forest Invitational at Pinehurst No. 2, March 1-2, before making its annual visit to Myrtle Beach for the General Hackler Intercollegiate, March 14-16.

The Pirates will then return home to host the ECU Intercollegiate at Brook Valley, which was canceled last season due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

"With the pandemic canceling our ECU Intercollegiate at Brook Valley last March we are thrilled to have that return to our schedule this March," Sapp stated.

The regular season concludes with two traditional events in April at the Irish Creek Intercollegiate at The Club at Irish Creek in Kannapolis (April 2-3) and the Stitch Intercollegiate at MacGregor Downs in Cary (April 9-10).

The American Championship is slated for April 23-25 for the first time at the Southern Hills Plantation Club in Brookville, Fla., with the NCAA Regionals set for May 17-19. The NCAA Championship will be contested at Greyhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., May 28-June 2.

The Pirates have not competed since the General Hackler Championship, which was played March 9-10, 2020. The remainder of their 2019-20 campaign, and the fall portion of this this season were canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ECU, Irish Creek and Stitch intercollegiate as well as The American and NCAA Championships were all events on the Pirates' schedule canceled last season.

The 2021 roster includes nine returning lettermen led by fifth-year senior Patrick Stephenson along with fellow seniors Tim Bunten and Stephen Carroll. The roster also includes four juniors: A.J. Beechler, Attie Giles, Jack Massei and Jimbo Stanley, and three sophomores: Jake Calamaro, Connor Jones and Chris Sperraza. Eston Lee is the lone freshman on this year's team.

Players Mentioned

A.J. Beechler

Tim Bunten

Stephen Carroll

Attie Giles

Jack Massei

Jimbo Stanley

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