GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's golf team will resume its fall season with the first of two trips to the Lone Star state for regional competition when they will tee it up on Monday and Tuesday at the Ryan Palmer Foundation Invitational at the Amarillo Country Club.
 
West Texas A&M University is hosting the 15-team event that will be contested over 54 holes by 13 NCAA Division II South Central Region squads as well as junior college power Hutchinson Community College and Division II provisional member Texas A&M-Texarkana.
 
The teams are slated to play two rounds on Monday, beginning with a 9 a.m. CDT (8 a.m. Mountain) start.  Tuesday's third and final round will begin at 8:30 a.m. CDT (7:30 a.m.) with tee times based on day one scores.
 
Live scoring can be found on the SCOREBOARD website at the link above.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks ended up a in a tie for second place out of ten teams at the Shootout at PGA Riviera Maya played at the Tulum Country Club in Akumal, Mexico played between Sept. 27-29.
 
The Mavs finished with a 54-hole team score of 890 (+26) and had rounds of 289, 298 and 303.  They led the tournament by five shots after the first round and had a 2-shot lead entering the second before slipping back on the final day.
 
The Mavs did have three players finish inside the top ten of the individual standings.
 
Sophomore Henry Starr finished third in the 50-man field at 219 (+3) while Will Alexander and Baptiste Laborde were part of a tie for sixth at 224 (+8).  Maverick freshman Colby Hutton finished in a tie for 11^th at 226 (+10) and was tied for the lead after his opening-round of 1-under par 71.
 
Only two men finished the tournament under par as the field averaged 76.71 strokes per round over the three days on the difficult, 6,980-yard, par-72 course.
 
Full Recaps from both days of the tournament can be seen here: Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3
 
Ryan Palmer History
 
The Mavericks have fared well in previous editions of the tournament. 
 
At the 2025 event, they finished in a tie for third place out of 16 teams with a team score of 844, then shots under par.  That total is the program's seventh best in program history.
 
Dylan Everett, who is returning to the event this year, tied for 15^th with a 2-under par score of 211 last year.
 
In 2024, the Mavs finished second out of 17 teams with a program-record score of 821 (-21).  They also broke the team's single-round record, posting a 12-under par score of 268 in the final round.  Now assistant coach Cole Beyer also won the individual title that year with a final score of 197 (-13).
 
The Lineup
 
Maverick coach Scott Sullivan has set his team lineup for the Ryan Palmer Foundation Invite and will travel Henry Starr, Colby Hutton, Will Alexander, Jacob Gonzalez and Cruz Carter to play for the team.  Luke Wagstaff will also play as an individual.
 
The Opposition
 
The Mavs are one of three Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference squads in the field and will be joined by Fort Lewis and Westminster.
 
Ten of the 12 Lone Star Conference squads will also be in action.  The LSC is the other conference in the South Central Region that RMAC teams are battling it out with for the ten spots in the regional tournament at the end of the spring.
 
Including the Mavs, the field includes six of the ten teams that were in last year's regional, including the tournament hosts (West Texas A&M), who finished second in last year's regional.
 
Meanwhile, Texas A&M-Texarkana, transitioning from the NAIA ranks and Hutchinson Community College, which finished fourth at the last year's NJCAA National Championships, will round out the field.
 
Ranking Recap
 
The Mavericks sit 23^rd in the first regular season edition of the Bushnell/Golfweek Division II Coaches Poll, released by the Golf Coaches Association of America on Sept. 25.  That is a one spot drop from their No. 22 preseason ranking.
 
West Texas A&M is the only other ranked team in the Ryan Palmer Invite field.  The Buffs are ranked 21^st with 83 points in the top-25 polling, just six more than the Mavs.  They were ranked 16^th in the preseason poll.
 
CMU has finished higher than the Buffs in two of the first three tournaments of the season.
 
However, six other teams in the tournament field are also receiving votes in the poll.  Dallas Baptist and Midwestern State are both receiving 37 points while Oklahoma Christian has 18. UT Tyler has ten.  Cameron has five points while Western New Mexico received a single 25^th place vote.
 
Following the team win at the San Juan Intercollegiate, Colorado Chrisitan surged six spots to 12^th in the poll after sitting 18^th in the preseason.
 
 Another RMAC squad in CSU Pueblo also remained in the poll at the No. 25 spot.  The ThunderWolves had been ranked 19^th in the preseason.  The Colorado School of Mines is also receiving votes.
 
Top Ten Streak
 
Maverick sophomore Henry Starr has put together an impressive fall season, recording a co-championship and top ten finishes in all three of the Mavs' tournaments so far.
 
He finished third at the Shootout at PGA Riveria Maya after sharing the individual title at the San Juan Intercollegiate presented by Timberline Bank.  He had opened the season with a sixth place finish at the Travis Roy Memorial Invitational.

Starr is the first Maverick  since now assistant coach Cole Beyer to post top ten finishes in three straight tournaments.  Beyer had eight top ten finishes during his 2024-25 senior campaign that saw him set a program-record 69.45 scoring average.  Beyer had four straight top five finishes to open the campaign and then had three straight top two finishes during the spring portion of the season.
 
Starr is averaging 70.89 strokes per round in three tournaments and nine rounds this season.
 
RMAC Poll
 
The Mavericks topped the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, which was released on Aug. 25.  After winning the conference crown, the Mavs received five of six possible first place votes and tallied 34 points overall.
 
CSU Pueblo was picked second with 28 points and received a first place vote along with three second place predictions.  The Colorado School of Mines and Colorado Christian were tied for third in the poll with 26.
 
Westminster (15), Fort Lewis (11) and South Dakota Mines (7) rounded out the poll.
 
Preseason Honors
 
Maverick senior Dylan Everett was also named to the 8-man Preseason All-RMAC team, which was made of the top returning players from last year's all-conference voting process.
 
He earned First Team All-RMAC accolades last year after posting a 72.39 scoring average to rank second on the team.  He had four top ten finishes throughout the season and posted 15 par or better rounds, including nine in the 60's.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavs will conclude the fall season at the NCAA South Central/West Regional Preview in San Antonio, Texas on Oct. 26-27.  St. Mary's University is hosting that tournament, which will give many of the super region's teams a chance to check out the Dominion Country Club course that will be used for the NCAA regional tournament in the spring.