Kentucky men’s golf season is up and running, and the Wildcats continue to look to find their footing for the remainder of the season.
Last year, the team saw many new faces including a new coaching staff led by Head Coach Gator Todd. Now in year two of the Todd era, the team hopes to capitalize on its 11th place finish at the SEC Championship last year.
With a team full of hopeful golfers, the Kentucky Kernel broke down the full 2024-25 Kentucky men’s golf roster.
Meet the team:
Gavin Clutts
Year: Freshman
Hometown: Hazard, Kentucky
High school: Saddlebrook Preparatory
About: A true freshman and a Kentucky native, Gavin Clutts has played in several tournaments so far this year.
Clutts has a tied-for-42nd individual finish in his debut in the Folds of Honor Collegiate, and a tied-for-67th finish in the the Bearcat Invitational.
In high school, he was named Saddlebrook Golf Academy Player of the Year three times and was the 2022 American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Bluegrass Junior Open Champion.
Jacob Lang
Year: Freshman
Hometown: Alvaton, Kentucky
High school: Greenwood High
About: Lang, still waiting to make his debut for the Wildcats, was named 2023 Kentucky High School Mr. Golf.
The All-State golfer received high praise from coach Todd when it was announced Lang would play for Kentucky.
“Jacob Lang is a proven winner with a high ceiling,” Todd said. “He is a perfect fit into our culture and will continue to thrive in this environment.”
Jacob Settles
Year: Freshman
Hometown: Winchester, Kentucky
High school: George Rogers Clark
About: Another All-State golfer out of Kentucky, Settles was the 2023 AJGA Memorial Juniors champion.
One thing about Settles, he is said to have a tremendous work ethic.
“Jacob is the epitome of a Kentucky golfer,” Todd said. “He has great fundamentals that contribute to his consistent ball-striking. He also has a tremendous work ethic that will fit in great at the University of Kentucky.”
Wesley Beard
Year: Redshirt freshman
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
High school: St. Xavier
About: Beard has been with the university since last year, but redshirted before competing in any tournaments.
Before being a Wildcat, Beard, at St. Xavier, was a three-year letter winner and carded a top five finish in the 2021 AJGA Stewart Cink Championship.
Michael Hake
Year: Sophomore
Hometown: Brentwood, Tennessee
High school: Ravenwood
About: One of three sophomores on Kentucky’s roster, Hake is a returner who finished last year with a 75.15 scoring average through eight tournaments and 20 rounds of golf.
Hake’s best performance was at the Cardinal Individual Collegiate where he had a tie for 14 finish at 4-over.
In high school, Hake ranked 150th in his graduating class in the state of Tennessee on the Junior Golf Scoreboard. Additionally, he has competed in three Tennessee state championships.
Oakley Gee
Year: Redshirt sophomore
Hometown: Carmi, Illinois
High school: Carmi-White County
About: Gee started in seven events last year, played eight in total and was the third on the team in scoring average, coming out to 73.36 for the year.
Notably, in high school, Gee was ranked No. 1 on the Junior Golf Scoreboard in the state of Illinois in 2022 and was ranked top 50 in the overall in the class of 2022.
In Gee’s first year at Kentucky, he only played in one tournament, the Island Resort Intercollegiate, where he finished tied for 59 as an individual.
Solomon Petrie
Year: Redshirt sophomore
Hometown: Akron, Ohio
High school: Archbishop Hoban
About: Last year, Petrie started in three tournaments and competed in four total with his best finish being at the Blessings Collegiate where he tied for 30th place.
Petrie was once ranked 33rd overall internationally in the American Junior Golf Association rankings.
Petrie, a multi-sport athlete in high school, set the 18-hole record at the Portage Country Club in the Hoban Invitational with an eight-under-par 62. He would then go on to have a season average of 71.
In the one event Petrie has competed in so far this season, the Folds of Honor Collegiate, he shot 74 and finished tied for 30th.
Jack Schoenberger
Year: Junior
Hometown: Alpharetta, Georgia
High school: Kings Ridge Christian
About: Schoenberger is one of two transfers coming to the program this year, coming in from Belmont.
At Belmont, he won awards like Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Newcomer of the Year his freshman year. Schoenberger’s scoring average of 72.10 was the lowest scoring average from a Belmont freshman ever recorded in the Division-I era.
He would not slow down in the rest of his Belmont era as he received All-MVC first team honors and finished the season with a 70.5 scoring average. If Schoenberger was playing for UK last year, he would have had the lowest scoring average on the team.
Now, this season — up to this point — Schoenberger has ended both tournaments he’s played in in the top 20 on the individual leaderboard.
Jansen Preston
Year: Redshirt senior
Hometown: Lexington, Kentucky
High school: Lexington Christian Academy
About: This year’s season will be the senior’s second year at Kentucky after transferring from Vanderbilt.
From the outside looking in, it seems the team had faith in Preston last season as he started in all ten of the team events last season.
That faith was well placed as Preston had the second highest scoring average on the team 73.14, second only to former teammate Alex Goff, who put up a 70.55 scoring average.
Preston, a Lexington native, has athletic roots with Kentucky as his father Marty Preston played baseball for the Cats.
Jackson Klutznick
Year: Graduate student
Hometown: Denver, Colorado
High school: Kent Denver
About: Jackson Klutznick joins the Wildcat squad this year after transferring from Emory, where he played Division-III golf for three years before coming to Kentucky.
Klutznick made an entrance to his collegiate golf career at Emory, setting the program record with a scoring average of 70.7 strokes per round over 17 rounds played in the 2021-22 season.
Over the next two years, he would see honors like winning the Jack Nicklaus Award, given to the Division-III Player of the Year. He was also UAA Tournament MVP and would be the first Emory golfer to be named to the PING All-America First Team three times.
Most recently, before the season started at Kentucky, Klutznick would take the summer and travel to Ireland and be a representative on Team USA at the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup. Klutznick would compete in four different rounds during the three day tournament, contributing to Team USA taking home the win over Team International.
The Arnold Palmer is an annual tournament that has been going on since 1997. The event is a Ryder Cup-style tournament featuring the top men’s and women’s collegiate golfers from the U.S. and matching them against a team of international players.