The Texas men’s golf team heads into the 2015-16 campaign ranked No. 2 in the Golf Coaches Association of America Poll, with Texas receiving eight first-place votes in the poll.
Texas is coming off a season in which it won seven tournaments, its third-straight Big 12 championship and went to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships before falling to USC in match play.
This season, Texas returns all four All-Americans, including juniors Beau Hossler and Gavin Hall and sophomores Scottie Scheffler and Doug Ghim.
Hossler is coming off an impressive showing overseas at the Walker Cup in Lytham St. Annes, England, where he won three out of four sessions for Team USA. Hossler also led the Longhorns in scoring average last season with 70.58.
Texas kicks off its season Friday at the Fighting Illini Invitational at the Olympia Fields Country Club in Chicago.
The three-day, 54-hole tournament will host fifteen teams — nine of which are ranked in the top-25 in the nation, including No. 1 Illinois, No. 3 Florida State and No. 5 Stanford.
Three other Big 12 teams — No. 12 Texas Tech, No. 19 Oklahoma State and No. 21 Baylor — will also be in the field.
Last year, tournament host Illinois posted a winning score of 861 (+21), 11 strokes better than Florida State. Texas finished sixth, posting 892 (+52). Dylan Meyer of Illinois and Maverick McNealy of Stanford both finished tied for first last year in the individual standings, with a three-over-par 213. Texas’ low player was Gavin Hall, who finished tied for eighth after firing a seven-over-par 217.
The Longhorns’ lineup for this year’s tournament includes Scheffler, Ghim, Hall, junior Taylor Funk and redshirt senior Tayler Termeer, in that order.