Later this week, golf fans will get to watch the beloved spring event known as The Masters down in Augusta, Georgia.

This will be the 80th year for the much-anticipated tournament where pro-golfers assemble and battle for a chance to come out on top with the iconic green jacket.

About 600 miles west of Augusta is a more micro-level tournament, where the Panthers golf team appeared at the beginning of Monday morning. The 20th annual Arkansas State Red Wolf Intercollegiate is Monday and Tuesday at the RidgePointe Country Club.

Fifteen schools made their way to Arkansas for the two-day tournament including North Dakota State, Omaha, Creighton, Northern Iowa and Ohio Valley Conference C representatives Belmont, Austin Peay State, Tennessee-Martin and Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. The host school Arkansas State brought their A and B teams to compete as well.

Five golfers from Eastern are participating in this year’s event. Alvaro Hernandez, Charlie Adare and Keith Altenberger are the freshmen trio representing the Panthers.

Sophomore Alex Gowin and Junior Daniel Hughes are the other two Eastern participants.

Eastern has not played in an event in two weeks and is looking to redeem themselves from their last place finish at the Missouri State Invite in late March.

36 holes were played on Monday between the teams. The first round of 18 holes began at 8 a.m. Temperatures would reach 77 degrees with sunny skies and winds at a slight gust of 9 miles per hour.

The Panthers started their morning on the back nine holes.

Alvaro Hernandez finished +1 for his first nine holes. He acquired two birdies on back-to-back holes. Hernandez shot a +3 for the second set of nine holes he played and would finish +4 for the round, shooting a 75. He had the best score out of any Panther in the first round.

Kevin Altenberger finished with a score of +13 through his first 18 holes of action. Alenburger was in 79th place going into the second half of his day. Charlie Adare was +10 and sat tied for 67th place with four other contestants. Alex Gowin found himself tied for 73rd while Daniel Hughes shot a 93 and placed 80th after round one.

As a team, Arkansas State took first place going into round two.

Play picked up again around 3 p.m. Austin Peay State moved up two spots by the end of the second round and ended the day in fourth place overall heading into Tuesday. Eastern has a team score of +65 and sits in last place after their 36 holes Monday. Arkansas State remains in first place with a score of thirteen under par. Their first place standing is led by Andrew Huseman who had two eagles in his second round.

Belmont dropped two places in the standings from their second round performance and is in fifth place after day one.

Two day will begin Tuesday at 8 a.m. 18 holes will be played in the final round on Tuesday.

Jack Arkus can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]