PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Ten American Athletic Conference members will contest for the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship at the 2018 American Athletic Conference Men’s Golf Championship, presented by Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, to be held April 22-24 at the Copperhead Course at the Innisbrook Resort & Golf Club in Palm Harbor, Fla.
 
All three days of the championship can be followed via Golfstat, while the final round of the championship will also feature coverage on the American Digital Network beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET.
 
USF, ranked No. 21 in the latest Golfstat/NCAA rankings, holds the top overall seed for the championship. The Bulls have captured the last three American Athletic Conference men’s golf titles, including last year’s on the Copperhead Course when they won by 15 shots.
 
This season, USF has captured four tournament wins and is led by Claudio Correa, the No. 32-ranked player in the country, per Golfstat. Correa owns top-20 finishes in all three of his previous conference championships.
 
Cristian DiMarco enters the championship ranked No. 61 among NCAA players; DiMarco is joined by teammate Priyanshu Singh as Bulls to earn medalist honors this season. DiMarco was the runner-up at last year’s championship after falling in a playoff to Houston’s Michael Perras. 

Perras returns in his senior year to lead the Cougars, the second seed in the conference championship. At No. 45 in the Golfstat ratings, Perras is the second-ranked individual in The American. While Perras’ top finish this season is a tie for third, two Cougars own individual wins this spring. Matt Williams took top honors in the Cougars’ match against Minnesota, while Pryce Beshoory captured the Colin Montgomerie Invitational in late February.
 
Ranked immediately behind Houston in the Golfstat rankings is UCF, which comes in at No. 59 in the country. Bobby Bai is coming off a victory in the Boilermaker Invitational earlier in the week. In the rain-shortened event, Bai was 5-under over two rounds to capture the title. Bai’s win was the second of the year for a Knight, joining Juuso Kahlos, who collected a victory at the Hartford Hawk Invitational in the fall season.
 
Led by Blake Taylor, ECU enters the championship as the fourth-rated team in The American. Taylor has been the Pirates' low scorer four times this season. ECU owns one victory this season, taking first at the ECU Intercollegiate earlier in the month.
 
McClure Meissner, the 12^th-ranked freshman golfer in the nation this year per Golfstat, is looking to help lead SMU to its best finish in the conference championship since the 2015 season. Meissner’s 71.89 scoring average to this point in the year is the fifth-best in SMU history, trailing only Bryson Dechambeau (2014-15, 2013-14), Kelly Kraft (2009-10) and Hank Kuehne (1997-98).
 
At last year’s championship, Gray Townsend’s 68 in the final round lifted him into a tie for third, one shot out of a playoff.
 
Austin Squires, the 2017 American Player of the Year, returns to lead Cincinnati in the conference championship. Last year, the Bearcats tied Houston for second place in the championship as Jake Fox joined Squires in the top 10.
 
Memphis owns four top-four finishes in 2017-18, including a fourth-place result in its penultimate tournament of the regular-season at the Ryman Intercollegiate. Bradley Bawden’s five top-20 finishes lead the Tigers, while Rodi Vlasveld’s 73.1 scoring average paces the team.
 
The eighth-seeded team at the championship, UConn is riding the wave of three straight top five finishes. Leading the UConn into the conference tournament is junior Jimmy Hervol. Hervol is the Huskies’ top scorer, averaging 71.6 per round for 32 rounds. He has been the top UConn finisher in five events this year, notching four Top 10 and seven Top 20 finishes, including medalist honors at the FAU Spring Championship. Also with a win this season for the Huskies is sophomore Tim Umphrey, who collected medalist honors at the Lehigh Valley Collegiate.
 
Making its debut at the conference championship will be Wichita State, which is in its first year of membership in The American. Gage Ihrig leads the Shockers with three top 20 finishes, including a second-place result to start his season.
 
Temple will be looking to better last year’s ninth-place showing at the conference championship. Dawson Anders’ 65 ranks as the lowest round by an Owl this season, while John Barone leads Temple with five top 20 finishes.
 
Teams seeded 1-6 will tee off from hole No. 1 beginning at 7:30 a.m. ET from the first tee. Teams seeded 7-10 will tee off from No. 10 beginning at 7:34 a.m. ET on Sunday. Tee times will be the same on Monday and Tuesday, with the teams to be determined based on scores.