Hello Trojans!

Your 49th ranked Trojans have just arrived back home after winning the Ohio Valley Conference Championship for the second time in three years! This will mark the fourth time the program has qualified for NCAA Regionals in the last five years which also included the programs only trip to the National Championship in 2021.

NCAA Selection Show Party

We hope you will join us at the Jack Stephens Center on April 30th from 11:30am - 1:00pm as we await to see where we are headed for NCAA Regionals. Coverage will begin on the Golf Channel at 12:00pm!

2025 Ohio Valley Conference Championship Recap

On Tuesday, Rhett South claimed the individual title after firing rounds of 72-65-73 to tie for medalist before winning in a playoff. The victory was Rhett’s first collegiate victory while also marking the third individual medalist in the three years Little Rock has been in the OVC (Anton Albers - 2023 & Archie Smith - 2024). Rhett South and Matteo Cristoni were also named to the OVC All-Tournament team for finishing in the top-5 during the stroke play portion.

All five starting Trojans were named to the All-OVC Team. Matteo Cristoni, Freddie Turnell, and Archie Smith were named to the All-OVC First Team while Rhett South and Ed Featherstone were named to the All-OVC Second team. Freshmen Freddie Turnell and Ed Featherstone were also named to the All-OVC newcomer team which consisted of five student-athletes.

The Trojans also brought home the Ohio Valley Conference Player, Freshman, and Coach of the year!

After that it was on to the match play portion to decide the team champion. In our semifinal match we went up against Morehead State as Alex Rowland subbed in for Matteo Cristoni in the morning match

Little Rock 3.5 vs. Morehead State 1.5

• Freddie Turnell lost 3&2

• Ed Featherstone won 1up

• Alexander Rowland won 5&3

• Rhett South won 4&3

• Archie Smith was All Square through 15 holes, but we had already won the match

The victory over Morehead State in the morning advanced us to the Championship Match against UT Martin. It was an action packed final match in which we led the first two matches the entire day and UT Martin led the third and fifth match out the entire day, so the championship was going to be decided by the fourth match out which was Senior Matteo Cristoni.

Matteo played a solid first 14 holes making 14 straight pars to start the match and be 1 down heading into hole 15. He made a clutch 4.5 footer for birdie on hole 15 to halve the hole and remain 1 down heading to 16 which was halved with pars to remain 1 down with two holes to play. On 17 Matteo’s opponent unfortunately hit his tee shot into the hazard which opened the door for Matteo to change his strategy and hit 2 iron - 8 iron onto the green and make par to win the hole and head to 18 all square. Hole 18 is a reachable par 5 and both players were greenside in two. The UT Martin player chipped his ball to 10 feet before eventually missing his birdie chance which gave Matteo the putt to win the Championship with a left edge 6 foot birdie putt up the hill. Matteo made the putt and the celebration began!!!

Matteo’s Championship WINNING putt!

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Little Rock 3 vs. UT Martin 2

• Ed Featherstone won 1up

• Archie Smith won 3&1

• Freddie Turnell lost 4&2

• Matteo Cristoni won 1up

• Rhett South was 2 down through 16 holes, but we had already won the match

Season Recap

Ranking: 49th

2024-25 Cumulative Head-to-Head Record: 128-40-6

2024-25 Wins Against the Power 4: 32

2024-25 Wins Against the Top-25: 7 (Wins over #10 North Carolina, #12 UCLA,#19 Duke, #20 South Carolina, #21 Pepperdine, #23 Louisville, #25 Tennessee)

GO TROJANS!