The UTM Martin golf team will ride a wave of momentum and a good week of practice into the Ohio Valley Conference Golf Championship at Paducah (Ky.) Country Club April 28-30.

The Skyhawks finished eighth in the recent Billiken Invitational at gateway National in Madison, Ill. The team shot a three-round 906. The Skyhawks posted the lowest single round team score with a 290. First-year Skyhawk golf coach Jerry Carpenter said the team enjoyed a good week of practice at Persimmon Hills in Sharon and Fulton (Ky.) Country Club.

"It's important for us to have a good first round," Carpenter said. "We don't need to get ourselves in a big hole where we can't make up ground in the second and third rounds." Carpenter said his golfers will find the Paducah Country Club Course challenging. "It's an old course with a lot of large oak trees, and three of the toughest par-three holes around. It is tight fairways and high rough."

With rain in the forecast for early next week, the course could present even a bigger challenge, Carpenter said. "Rain will make this course play longer and the high roughs will be more difficult. "We must drive the ball in the fairways if we are going to score," Carpenter said.

The Skyhawk golf team includes Heath Prescott, Reise Kelly, Zach Jaworski, Scott Carpenter and Clint Rochelle. All of the golfers have participated in the conference tournament at least once with the exception of Kelly, a freshman from Nashville. "With our game and the mind set we have right now, we are in the best shape we've been in all year," Carpenter said.

The coach said he doesn't expect the Skyhawks to win the tournament, but he wants them to improve on their ninth-place finish of a year ago. "Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee State will be tough," Carpenter said. Tennessee State's Robert Dinwiddie would be among the favorites to win the individual title.

Dinwiddie averaged 70.5 over eight rounds this spring. He sports a 71.5 average for the fall and spring season combined. Action gets under way Monday morning around 8 at Paducah Country Club.