Pirates Set For 2021 American Championships

BROOKVILLE, Fla. – The East Carolina men's golf team is set to compete the 2021 American Athletic Conference Championships, April 23-25, at the Southern Hills Golf Club. Teams begin play at 8 a.m. with the Pirates teeing off alongside Temple at between 8 – 8:34 a.m.

The championship will feature three rounds of stroke play among nine teams and 45 players with the winner receiving the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.

The American has four teams featured in the GolfStat Top 65 in SMU (20), South Florida (35), Houston (61) and UCF (65). However, Houston will not compete in the event due to positive COVID-19 cases and contact tracing within the Cougars' program.

Competing of ECU will be junior A.J. Beechler, seniors Stephen Carroll, Tim Bunten and Patrick Stephenson along with redshirt sophomore Connor Jones. Junior Attie Giles will be the Pirates' designated substitute.

Stephenson, who will be playing in his fourth American championship event, posted his best conference championship finish as a sophomore in 2018, tying for 11^th. Bunten is on the championship roster for the third time, while Beechler and Carroll will compete in the league's year-ending event for the second time.

Beechler owns the team's lowest scoring average at 73.50 strokes per round followed by Carroll and Stephenson, who are each averaging 74.00 strokes per round. They are the only three players to play in each of the Pirates' six tournaments this season.

Beechler's fourth-place finish at the Irish Creek Intercollegiate was the top finish by any Pirate this season and one of just three Top 10 individual ECU player finishes overall.

Bunten (74.87) ranks fourth in scoring average with Jones (76.00) holding the fifth-lowest average. Bunten played in five tournament and Jones competed in two with each recording one Top 10 finish.

The Pirates placed eighth when the event was last held in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Their best finish was fourth place in 2016.

After the seventh-seeded Pirates and eighth-seeded Owls finish teeing off, players from No. 5 seed Wichita State and No. 6 seed Memphis will head out from 8:43-9:17 a.m., followed immediately by No. 3 seed UCF and No. 4 seed Cincinnati at 9:29-9:58 a.m. Top-seeded SMU and No. 2 seed South Florida are set to take the course from 10:08-10:42 a.m. The field will be re-paired for both day two and day three based on subsequent scoring.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

A.J. Beechler

Tim Bunten

Stephen Carroll

Attie Giles

Connor Jones

Patrick Stephenson

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