Men’s golf eyes fifth consecutive title at RRAC Tournament next week

UHV's Nathan Biais hits a tee shot during the first day of the Claud Jacobs Invitational at the Victoria Country Club on Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (Sam Fowler/UHV Athletics)

May 2, 2025

The UHV men's golf team has its sights set on more hardware.

The Jaguars will look for their fifth consecutive conference title May 5-6 at the Red River Athletic Conference Tournament hosted by The Golf Club of Texas in San Antonio. The conference champion advances to the NAIA Men's Golf National Championships at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, May 20-23.

This is the first time in the last five years the tournament has been hosted somewhere other than Victoria.

"The guys are pumped," said interim head coach Taylor Dedmen. "They know this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and they're ready to compete and come out on top again."

UHV heads into the conference tournament with two team wins under their belt this season, most notably a 14-under par showing at the UHV Fall Classic in October.

Dedmen feels experience will be big for the Jaguars with three members of last year's team back in Joshua Van der Wath, Nathan Biais and Paul Chopin. Van der Wath and Biais were NAIA All-Americans last season.

Van der Wath, the 28^th-ranked golfer in the nation according to Scoreboard, is guaranteed a spot at the NAIA Tournament already by virtue of his Top 10 finish at the 2024 National Championships.

"I'm most confident in their ability to play under pressure," Dedmen said. "They thrive in these types of situations and their 'hungry' mentality will suit them well this week."

But Dedmen stressed that each of UHV's starting five must perform well in order to win this week.

In that win at the Fall Classic, the Jaguars had three golfers at or under par to go 14-under and win by 11 strokes. Last year, UHV won the conference tournament by 31 strokes.

"All five of them need to be ready to compete," Dedmen said. "Yes, we're confident going into this. But we also have to remember to not get complacent. We need them to feed off each other and motivate one another to perform their best, not only for this tournament but also to give us momentum going into the National Championships."