After a long summer that has seen several of its members achieve great personal success, the men’s golf team will compete in its first event of the season at the River Marsh Golf Club in Cambridge, Md.

The team will play in two more tournaments – one in late September, one in October – to close out its fall schedule. It will host its first home tournament at the new Lonnie Poole Golf Course on Centennial Campus Apr. 9-10.

“We’re better this year than we were last year,” junior Brandon Detweiler said. “We have more experience.”

The Pack will play the 54-hole tournament Saturday and Sunday.

Seniors Kent Copeland, Hertzog Landman and Brad Revell, junior Matt Hill, sophomore Mark McMillen and freshman Mitchell Sutton will travel to Maryland.

In his first year with the Pack, expectations for Sutton – the team’s sole freshman – are high after he won the Canadian Juniors this summer. He beat out future teammate and fellow Ontario native Hill, who tied for third place.

“He’s a really good player and we expect a lot of big things from him. We’re excited to have him,” Detweiler said of Sutton.

Because of his experience at Juniors, Hill is familiar with the incoming Pack player and what he can do.

“He played really well and has some confidence coming into this season,” Hill said. “He’s looking forward to playing with the guys and I think he’s going to have a great year.”

The rest of the Pack has hardly taken the summer off. Hill said Revell played “really well” in the U.S. Amateur in August, advancing to the second round. McMillen won the 2009 N.C. Amateur championship held at the Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, N.C. in June.

Hill said this added experience and success may tip the Pack over the edge in terms of tournament standings. While team members found individual success in 2008-2009, a first place team finish continually eluded the team.

“We had a lot of guys who were playing well last year but maybe didn’t get quite as much out of their tournaments as they would have liked and didn’t play to their full potential,” Hill said.

Last year at the Maryland Intercollegiate, the Pack was one of three teams to finish under par and took second out of the field of competitors. Individually, Hill finished in fourth place and Revell 13th.

Hill said the team would like to start the season off with a win.

“We’re all playing really well. We all know the golf course and we know what to expect,” Hill said.

Golf World Magazine has the Pack ranked 13th nationally in a preseason poll, with Hill and Sutton earning spots on lists for players to watch and newcomers, respectively.

“I can speak for the rest of the guys when I say we’re not going to be happy with [13th place]. We need to be better,” Detweiler said.