SMU men’s golf heads to the ACC Championship with Will Sides chasing program history and the Mustangs aiming to contend in a loaded field.
SMU men’s golf enters the ACC Championship with one of the hottest players in college golf leading the way, as senior Will Sides brings a record-setting season into Shark’s Tooth Golf Club in Lake Powell, Florida.
The Mustangs will compete April 23-27 against a loaded 15-team field that includes Boston College, Cal, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, NC State, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Stanford, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
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It’s not exactly a soft landing, either. Thirteen teams are ranked inside the top 100, and five are currently top-25 programs.
SMU arrives with momentum after finishing third at the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial, where Sides delivered one of the best performances of his career. He fired rounds of 67, 66 and 64 to win his third tournament of the season and fourth as a Mustang.
That victory put Sides in rare company. Since 1993-94, only Colt Knost has won more tournaments in a single SMU season, capturing four in 2005-06. Sides sits one win away from matching that mark.
His season-long numbers are just as impressive. Sides is averaging 69.55 strokes per round, which currently stands as the best single-season scoring average in program history.
He passed Noah Goodwin’s 70.00 mark from 2020-21 and also moved ahead of former SMU star Bryson DeChambeau’s best seasons.
Sides also enters the ACC Championship tied for the school record with 23 rounds of par or better, matching Max Buckley and DeChambeau. One more would give him the record outright.
SMU’s lineup features Sides, Zachary Kingsland, Ben Steinmann, Christian Clark and Gabe Post, with Mason Lewis listed as the substitute.
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Kingsland gives the Mustangs another proven piece, ranking No. 30 in PGA Tour University, while Sides sits at No. 11.
After reaching match play in its first ACC Championship last season, SMU has a chance to make even more noise this week.
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