BOONEVILLE, Miss. - The Northeast Mississippi Community College golf program is officially ready to make its grand return following a two-year hiatus from intercollegiate competition.
The Tigers will participate in five regular season events plus a pair of postseason dates as part of a 2019-20 campaign that stretches across an eight-month period.
"I'm looking forward to getting out on the course with (our team)," said Northeast head coach Derek DeVaughn. "We believe that we're bringing in some top kids. We've got a great opportunity to be one of the best in the state if we will put our mind to it."
The Tigers are on the road for the duration of the season, which is broken down to three Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) tour stops during the fall semester and two events plus the playoffs in the spring.
The nearest tournament to the Booneville campus this year comes during the middle of the autumn slate from October 4-5 at the newly rechristened River Birch Golf Club in Amory.
Northeast spends a majority of its campaign in the central and southern half of the Magnolia State. That includes the season opener at Hinds Community College over the weekend of September 21-22.
The Tigers take an elongated break following a conference matchup hosted by Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College at Windance Country Club in late October. Windance, which holds a four-star rating from Golf Digest, has welcomed the Professional Golfers' Association's (PGA) Korn Ferry Tour in the past.
"We'll take what we learn in our first three tournaments and then we'll apply that to get better," DeVaughn said. "If it's putting or chipping or driving, we'll work on those fundamental things to where when we start back up we'll have a better opportunity to compete."
Northeast resumes its schedule after bypassing the coldest months of the calendar year from March 23-24 at Briarwood Golf Club. Meridian's Briarwood has a course rating of 72.7 with 6,928 yards of greens.
Copiah-Lincoln Community College's Wolf Hollow Golf Course serves as the final test for Northeast before the start of the postseason on the fourth and fifth of April. Wolf Hollow has been the site of a MACJC event for six consecutive years.
Linksters from across the state converge at Hinds once again from April 19-20 for the MACJC Tournament. It is the first time that Eagle Ridge Golf Course has welcomed the annual league championship since 2010.
The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) District D Tournament is moving to a neutral location at Canton's Deerfield Golf Club. Deerfield opened in 1979 and is a Byron Nelson designed course with a par score of 72.
The Tigers have boasted some of the top golfers in the nation since the team was originally founded in 1991. Northeast has accumulated four All-Americans and 12 athletes that qualified for the NJCAA National Tournament during its history on the links.