The Eastern men’s golf team will play in its third tournament of the spring at the 21st annual Arkansas State Intercollegiate on Monday and Tuesday.

The tournament will consist of 36 holes on Monday and 18 holes on Tuesday at the Par 71, 6,521 yard course at the RidgePointe Country Club in Jonesboro, Ark. The teams that will be competing are Eastern, Florida Atlantic, Xavier, Omaha, Murray State, Southern Illinois Edwardsville, Northern Iowa, Missouri State, Creighton, South Dakota, North Dakota, Tennessee-Martin, New Orleans, Oklahoma Christian and the host Arkansas State.

The Panthers are led by sophomore Alvaro Hernandez who has a stroke average of 73.47 and has placed in the top 15 in the first two tournaments of the spring. At the Butler Florida Invitational, Hernandez placed sixth and at the Missouri State Twin Oaks Intercollegiate he placed 11th.

Freshman Romeo Perez and sophomore Charlie Adare have a stroke average of 78, which is next best to Hernandez. Xavier comes into the tournament struggling as a team this spring with a last place finish at the Kingsmill Intercollegiate and they finished 12th out of 14 at the Pinehurst Intercollegiate.

Sophomore Charlie Adare has played in 13 tournaments this year and has a low round score  of 68.

He has an average of 78.62 which is the third lowest stroke per round avearge on the Eastern men’s golf team.

And based off the courses the Panthers have played this year he is +7 par.

The host Arkansas State is coming off of a first-place finish at the Oral Roberts Spring Break on March 14. Arkansas State competed at the Tiger Invitational at Auburn University for its first meet of the spring and finished 8th out of 19 teams. Florida Atlantic just hosted the FAU Slomin Autism Championship where they finished in ninth place.

Omaha competed last week in the Little Rock First Tee Classic and finished tied for 11th out of 13 teams after the two-day tournament. Tennesee-Martin was also at the Little Rock First Tee Classic and finished in 10th.  Omaha also struggled in the Grand Canyon University Invitational with a 15th place finish out of 16 teams. South Dakota also was at the Grand Canyon meet and finished in 14th.

Murray State participated in the Grover Page Classic with a fourth place finish out of eight teams. Southern Illinois Edwardsville last competed in the Missouri State Twin Oaks Intercollegiate with a third place finish out of 11 teams. Creighton’s last meet was also at the Twin Oaks and they came in eighth.

Northern Iowa also last competed in the Twin Oaks Intercollegiate with a fifth place finish out of the 11 teams in the tournament. They finished last out of 24 teams in the Bob Sitton Invitational in the first tournament of the spring. Missouri State was also in the Bob Sitton Invitational and finished in 21st out of the 24 teams.

North Dakota has not competed since early March and that was at the Sacramento State Invitational where they finished in 13th place. The Panthers’ best finish in the spring was in the first tournament of the year at the Butler Florida Invitational where they finished in seventh out of nine teams.

Eastern’s latest tournament resulted in a 10th place finish out of 11 teams.

The action is set to begin on Monday morning and conclude on Tuesday afternoon.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 or mmshanahan@eiu.edu