Following a three-month winter hiatus, No. 22 Liberty begins its spring schedule on Monday at the 2022 Sea Best Invitational.

The two-day, 54-hole event is hosted by Jacksonville at the TPC Sawgrass – Dye’s Valley Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

The sister course to the famed TPC Sawgrass – Stadium Course, home to The Players Championship on the PGA Tour, will play at a par 70, 6,873 yards this year.

The Flames last played in a team event 118 days ago when they wrapped up their fall season with a fourth-place finish at the Hamptons Intercollegiate (Oct. 4-5).

This year’s 12-team field at the Sea Best Invitational includes five other top-50 ranked teams (Golfstat rankings): Texas A&M (No. 9), Liberty (No. 26), Louisville (No. 35), Florida (No. 39), Charlotte (No. 44) and UAB (No. 50).

The Flames will also see four other ASUN Conference foes in the spring season opening event: North Florida (No. 51), FGCU (No. 71), Jacksonville (No. 99) and Lipscomb (No. 105).

Play gets underway on Monday at 8 a.m. with a shotgun start (36 holes on Monday). The tournament concludes with 18 holes on Tuesday.

Now on The Tee – Liberty’s Starting Five (2021-22 Stroke Average)

• Kieran Vincent (72.33)
• Austin Duncan (72.44)
• Jonathan Yaun (72.89)
• Austin Barbin (74.83)
• Brett Reid (N/A)
• Individual: Zach Barbin (N/A)
• Individual: Isaac Simmons (73.00)

Tournament Reflections – Previous Showing at the Sea Best Invitational:  

• Liberty has participated in this event 11 out of the last 12 years, posting 10 top-five finishes.
• Last year, Liberty opened the tournament portion of its spring schedule with a tie for second place at this same event.
• Liberty carded a 33-over par 873 (291-293-289), sharing second place with Duke on the challenging TPC Sawgrass – Dye’s Valley Course (par 70, 6,790 yards).
• Kieran Vincent paced Liberty at the event, finishing tied for sixth place with a 4-over par 214 (68-71-75).
• Vincent has played in this tournament four previous seasons, posting top-20 finishes in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
• Vincent’s career scoring average on this course is 71.25 (855 over 12 rounds), including four sub-70 rounds.
• Jonathan Yaun has finished top 25 the last two years at this event and has a career scoring average of 72.67 at the Dye’s Valley Course (654 over nine rounds).

From the 18^th Green – Recapping Liberty’s Last Time Out

• The Flames wrapped up their three-event fall schedule with a fourth-place finish at the Hamptons Intercollegiate, Oct. 4-5.
• Liberty posted a 1-over par 865 (297-284-284) at the Maidstone Club (par 72, 6,742 yards) in East Hampton, N.Y.
• The Flames finished five shots off the winning score of 4-under par 860, which was shared by No. 4 Georgia Tech (291-293-276), No. 42 Northwestern (291-288-281) and Virginia (295-285-280).
• Connor Polender (74-71-71) and Austin Barbin (73-70-73) led the way for the Flames, finishing tied for fourth place with an even par 216.
• Barbin was named the ASUN Men’s Golfer of the Week following the top-five finish.

Birdies and Bogeys – Liberty Team Notes

• The Flames finished their fall season ranked No. 22 in the Golfweek Men’s Golf Team Rankings and No. 24 in the Bushnell/Golfweek Division I Coaches Poll.
• Liberty was also ranked No. 26 in the final Golfstat.com rankings of the fall.
• Liberty played in three events during the fall season, which included a pair of top-five finishes.
• The Flames finished the Maridoe Collegiate Invitational (Sept. 13-15) in fifth place, while finishing in fourth place at the Hamptons Intercollegiate (Oct. 4-5).
• Liberty finished the fall season with a 288.33 team stroke average, the fourth-best mark in program history.
• Returning All-American and redshirt senior Kieran Vincent paced Liberty during the fall with a 72.33 stroke average.
• Liberty had four other players finish the fall season less than one stroke behind Vincent in scoring average: Austin Duncan (72.44), Connor Polender (72.56), Jonathan Yaun 972.89) and Isaac Simmons (73.00).
• Liberty enters the spring season looking to defend its ASUN Championship with the 2022 conference championship set for April 24-26 at the University of Georgia Golf Course in Athens, Ga.
• The Flames have advanced to the NCAA Regionals nine of the last 10 regional events and to the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship three times in program history (2012, 2019 and 2021).

Looking at the Latest Rankings:

Campbell (No. 109)
Charlotte (No. 44)
College of Charleston (No. 72)
Florida (No. 39)
FGCU (No. 71)
Jacksonville (No. 99)
Liberty (No. 26)
Lipscomb (No. 105)
Louisville (No. 35)
North Florida (No. 51)
Texas A&M (No. 9)UAB (No. 50)
USC Upstate (No. 215)
Note: Golfstat national rankings (as of Nov. 30)

Course Information:

• TPC Sawgrass – Dye’s Valley Course (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.)
• Par 70, 6,873 yards

Following the Flames at Hamptons Intercollegiate:

• Live stats will be available at Golfstat.com
• Twitter @LibertyGolf
• Instagram @LibertyGolf
• Round 1 Tee Time: Monday at 8:00 a.m./EST (Shotgun Start)