VALDOSTA, Ga. – The No. 37 Valdosta State men's golf team heads to the Gulf South Conference Championship Apr. 15-16 at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Magnolia Grove in Mobile, Ala.
 
The Blazers need a strong showing at the conference championship to enhance their resume for a berth in the NCAA South/Southeast Regional, scheduled for May 5-7 at Kinderlou Forest Gulf Course in Valdosta.  
 
Click on the link to the right of this story for live stats of the championship and for the GSC Championship Central webpage.
 
VSU is coming off a disappointing 14^th-place finish at the Argonaut Invitational on Apr. 4-5. There, graduate student Wesley Hanson and junior Chase Weathers each tied for 42^nd, each firing a 54-hole score of 224.  Hanson carded rounds of 76, 72, 76, while Weathers fired a 74, 77 and 73.  VSU finished with a 901 score for the tournament, beating both Christian Brothers (902) and Montevallo (909).  Lee finished second in the tournament (861), while West Florida was sixth (864) Delta State finished ninth (884) and West Georgia was 12^th (894) to round out teams from the GSC.  
 
In the latest NCAA Region Rankings, the Blazers were tenth as ten teams qualify for the super regional, However, each of the three conference in the region (GSC, Sunshine State, SIAC) receive an "automatic" berth for the conference champion.  If a team is not in the region top ten and wins its conference title, it'll bump the tenth team out when the final selections are announced in late April.
 
For the Golfstat national rankings, Lee is third, while West Florida is 13^th as the only two GSC schools in the top 25.  West Georgia is 26^th in the latest rankings, while Delta State is 31^st and VSU is 37^th for teams among the top 40.  Montevallo sits 60^th, followed by Shorter (61), Mississippi College (71), Union (72) and Christian Brothers is 80^th. 
 
This week's lineup for the Blazers features Hanson at the top spot, followed by Weathers, senior Gage Smith, sophomore Ryan Pollman and redshirt freshman Brandon Cho.  Hanson has played in all nine tournaments for the year and 27 rounds, while he has a 74.56 stroke average.  He has 25 rounds in the 70s and 22 of his scores have counted in the team score for the season. 

Weathers also has played in all nine tournaments for the season with a 74.81 stroke average.  25 of his 27 rounds have counted in the team score and he has 24 rounds in the 70s with a low-round of 69 for the year.  Smith has played in eight tournaments this season for 24 rounds and a 74.83 stroke average.  He has 22 rounds in the 70s and 21 have counted in the team score.   Pollman also has played in all nine tournaments for 27 rounds with a 75.11 stroke average.  A total of 26 rounds have been shot in the 70s for Pollman, while 25 have counted in the team score.  Cho qualified for his third tournament of the season as he played as an individual in the NCAA South/Southeast Region Preview last fall and also in the 2022 Men's Spring Kickoff hosted by Lincoln Memorial in February.  
 
Check back with vstateblazers.com each day for complete stats and recaps of the championship.