Sunday, April 26
Ackerman-Allen Course - West Lafayette, Ind.
UT Martin
vs
OVC Championships
Photo by: UT Martin Sports Information
UT Martin Heads To Hoosier State In Search Of Program’s Fourth Ohio Valley Conference Championship
4/25/2026 8:01:00 AM | Golf
MARTIN, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee at Martin golf team will make the six-hour drive to West Lafayette, Ind. for the 2026 Ohio Valley Conference Championships as the Ackerman-Allen Course will host the event for the first time ever.
The OVC Men's Golf Championships will be held in the state of Indiana for the first time in the 64-year history of the tournament as this will also be just the second time that the Skyhawks will play inside the Hoosier State since transitioning into the NCAA Division I ranks in 1992 (also taking part in the 2021 NCAA Regional in Noblesville, Ind.).
Located at the Purdue University Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex, the Ackerman-Allen Course opened in 1934 and was redesigned by Pete Dye in 2016. It is a parkland-style par-71 venue that will play around 7,100 yards this week, featuring large bent-grass greens, fairways and tees with a challenging layout that includes rolling hills, tree-lined fairways, white sand bunkers and minimal water hazards. The course is rich with history as it hosted the 1961 NCAA Championships, famously won by Jack Nicklaus.
The 2026 OVC Championships mark the fifth season where the league's NCAA Championships automatic entrant will be determined following a final day of match play. All 11 schools will compete in traditional stroke play on Sunday, April 26 through Tuesday, April 28 as an individual medalist will be crowned. The top four teams in the standings then advance to the match play portion on Wednesday, April 29 with the two semifinal winners will clash for the opportunity to be crowned OVC champions.
Partly cloudy conditions with highs of 66 through 73 degrees and winds varying from 11 to 16 mph are projected for Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday's Round 2 forecast calls for an 82 percent chance of thunderstorms developing in the afternoon.
UT Martin, who won OVC team titles in 2022, 2021 and 2016 and produced five OVC individual medalists since 2015, has advanced to the match-play round of the OVC Championships in three out of four seasons since that format was introduced. The Skyhawks are the second-ranked team in the OVC based off the national Clippd rankings and have produced the second-best stroke average (287.5) in the league this season.
Sixth-year UT Martin head coach Austin Swafford has selected senior Luke Caldwell (fourth in the OVC with a 71.7 scoring average, two top-five tournament finishes) at the No. 1 spot in his lineup. He is followed by junior Grant Phillips (11th in the OVC with a 72.6 stroke average, winning the Austin Peay Intercollegiate on March 23-24), sophomore Drew Williams (fifth in the OVC with a 72.1 scoring average, team-best five top-10 finishes), sophomore John-Gregory Wilson (73.8 stroke average, OVC-best round of 62 at the Grover Page Classic on Sept. 15) and freshman Bryce Harmon (74.1 scoring average, career-best rounds of 68 twice this season).
This will be the third career OVC Championship appearance for both Caldwell and Phillips, who each placed in the top-20 in both the 2025 and 2024 league tournaments. This week will mark the OVC Championship debuts of Williams, Wilson and Harmon.
In Sunday's opening round, the Skyhawks will tee off on Hole No. 1 alongside Little Rock and Tennessee Tech. Harmon will start at 9:20 a.m. CT and will be followed by Wilson (9:30 a.m. CT), Williams (9:40 a.m. CT), Phillips (9:50 a.m. CT) and Caldwell (10:00 a.m. CT).
For additional information on the 2026 OVC Championships, including links for live scoring, visit the Championship Central link above.
The OVC Men's Golf Championships will be held in the state of Indiana for the first time in the 64-year history of the tournament as this will also be just the second time that the Skyhawks will play inside the Hoosier State since transitioning into the NCAA Division I ranks in 1992 (also taking part in the 2021 NCAA Regional in Noblesville, Ind.).
Located at the Purdue University Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex, the Ackerman-Allen Course opened in 1934 and was redesigned by Pete Dye in 2016. It is a parkland-style par-71 venue that will play around 7,100 yards this week, featuring large bent-grass greens, fairways and tees with a challenging layout that includes rolling hills, tree-lined fairways, white sand bunkers and minimal water hazards. The course is rich with history as it hosted the 1961 NCAA Championships, famously won by Jack Nicklaus.
The 2026 OVC Championships mark the fifth season where the league's NCAA Championships automatic entrant will be determined following a final day of match play. All 11 schools will compete in traditional stroke play on Sunday, April 26 through Tuesday, April 28 as an individual medalist will be crowned. The top four teams in the standings then advance to the match play portion on Wednesday, April 29 with the two semifinal winners will clash for the opportunity to be crowned OVC champions.
Partly cloudy conditions with highs of 66 through 73 degrees and winds varying from 11 to 16 mph are projected for Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday's Round 2 forecast calls for an 82 percent chance of thunderstorms developing in the afternoon.
UT Martin, who won OVC team titles in 2022, 2021 and 2016 and produced five OVC individual medalists since 2015, has advanced to the match-play round of the OVC Championships in three out of four seasons since that format was introduced. The Skyhawks are the second-ranked team in the OVC based off the national Clippd rankings and have produced the second-best stroke average (287.5) in the league this season.
Sixth-year UT Martin head coach Austin Swafford has selected senior Luke Caldwell (fourth in the OVC with a 71.7 scoring average, two top-five tournament finishes) at the No. 1 spot in his lineup. He is followed by junior Grant Phillips (11th in the OVC with a 72.6 stroke average, winning the Austin Peay Intercollegiate on March 23-24), sophomore Drew Williams (fifth in the OVC with a 72.1 scoring average, team-best five top-10 finishes), sophomore John-Gregory Wilson (73.8 stroke average, OVC-best round of 62 at the Grover Page Classic on Sept. 15) and freshman Bryce Harmon (74.1 scoring average, career-best rounds of 68 twice this season).
This will be the third career OVC Championship appearance for both Caldwell and Phillips, who each placed in the top-20 in both the 2025 and 2024 league tournaments. This week will mark the OVC Championship debuts of Williams, Wilson and Harmon.
In Sunday's opening round, the Skyhawks will tee off on Hole No. 1 alongside Little Rock and Tennessee Tech. Harmon will start at 9:20 a.m. CT and will be followed by Wilson (9:30 a.m. CT), Williams (9:40 a.m. CT), Phillips (9:50 a.m. CT) and Caldwell (10:00 a.m. CT).
For additional information on the 2026 OVC Championships, including links for live scoring, visit the Championship Central link above.
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