The East Carolina men’s golf team is preparing to compete in the American Athletic Conference Championship at Black Diamond Ranch in LeCanto, Florida, May 1-3.

After struggling in the last two tournaments of the regular season, finishing ninth and 12th, the Pirates remain confident in their ability to finish near the top of the conference tournament.

“We are hoping to take good shots and then execute them with confidence,” ECU head coach Press McPhaul said. “In doing that over and over again, we trust that the result will be a good one.”

The team is hoping that a different schedule format for the tournament will help them play more relaxed and allow them to execute their shots. The tournament will last three days with one round each day, unlike the usual format of a two-day tournament where the first two rounds are played in one day.

The 36-hole days are tough on the players, meaning the three-day format will likely help the team in playing the way it is most comfortable with.

“It helps everybody is going down there. The 36-hole days are long days and guys are accustomed to playing 18 holes in a day,” McPhaul said.

Windy conditions are often something golfers have to battle at Black Diamond Ranch, but it’s not something the team is worrying about.

“We want to give the elements the proper respect, without changing everything that we’re doing,” McPhaul said. “If you hit a solid shot, the wind doesn’t mess with it too much, so we just want to take good, normal shots.”

The team is hoping for a better result this season, after finishing seventh in last years AAC championship. Four of the five Pirates who will likely play in this season’s tournament are familiar with the course after competing last season.

“Any time you are going to somewhere that you’ve played helps. There’s a higher degree of comfort, you understand what the golf course is demanding,” McPhaul said.

Wes Conover and Jackson Spires both finished tied for 14th at even par, 216, and led ECU in the 2015 AAC championship. Juniors Jacob Hicks and Al Dickens finished tied for 34th and 39th respectively in last season’s tournament and will be competing this year in their senior seasons.

The play of the four returning starters in last season’s tournament is something that the team is looking to build off of this year.

“You’re going to a place that you’ve had some success before and you’re hopefully better than you were a year ago,” McPhaul said.

South Florida dominated the field last season, finishing 13 shots ahead of second-place finisher SMU and 44 shots ahead of ECU. Sophomore Tim Conover will likely be the fifth member of the team this season as they compete at Black Diamond Ranch’s Quarry Course.

This season the No. 61 Pirates will face off with several top-50 teams, including No. 15 South Florida, No. 49 SMU and No. 39 Memphis.

Even though ECU is going up against tough competition, its coaches are urging its players to not worry about its opponents and to focus on its own play.

“We need to do the little things well, pay attention to ourselves and play the best that we can play and then trust that a good result will come,” McPhaul said.

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