The Eastern Kentucky University men’s golf team will begin play at the 2026 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship on April 21 in Valdosta, Georgia. The event is hosted by the league office and will take place at Kinderlou Forest Golf Club.
The championship features a field of 12 teams competing over three days for a total of 54 holes. The course is a par-72 layout measuring 7,517 yards. This marks the second consecutive year that Kinderlou Forest Golf Club has hosted the tournament.
Eastern Kentucky will start its opening round from the back nine beginning at 8 a.m. Eastern Time, with staggered tee times through 8:40 a.m. The Colonels are paired with Austin Peay and Central Arkansas for this round. EKU’s lineup includes senior Anders Larson, junior Zach Watterson, senior Justin Begley, redshirt freshman Hristo Yanakiev, and sophomore Jameson Corbin. Freshman Jacob Lewallen will travel as an alternate.
Larson enters the championship with a scoring average of 71.5 and has achieved top-10 finishes in his last four events—including three top-five placements and one victory—ranking him ninth among players in the field as of Monday. In his most recent competition at the Bluegrass Collegiate hosted by the University of Kentucky, Larson finished ninth with a score of +5 over three rounds.
Watterson holds a scoring average of 73.0 and recently placed within the top-25 at both the Bluegrass Collegiate and Memphis Intercollegiate tournaments. Begley averages 74.2 strokes per round and tied his season-best finish by placing sixth at Memphis Intercollegiate on March 31.
Yanakiev (74.6) and Corbin (75.3) complete EKU’s lineup for this week’s championship play.
Last year, Eastern Kentucky finished tenth overall in this event with a total score of +9 after three rounds; Larson led individually by tying for thirteenth place following a final-round score that included five birdies.
