Steve Fox leads Mocs in visit to Farm

photo Steven Fox celebrates winning a hole during the U.S. Amateur golf tournament at Cherry Hills, Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012, in Cherry Hills Village, Colo.

By winning the U.S. Amateur, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior golfer Steven Fox earned exemptions into the 2013 Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open.

And the 2012 Carpet Capital Collegiate.

The rest of the Mocs competed for the final four spots to be on the roster when they open the season Friday at The Farm Golf Club at Rocky Face, Ga.

"He's part of this team, and he doesn't want to be treated differently than anybody else," UTC coach Mark Guhne said. "The great thing is that he wanted everything to get back to normal."

Once the Fox hysteria slowed after a week of celebration, the Mocs returned to their practice facility and area golf courses to prepare for the season.

Fox, who was named the Southern Golf Association's national amateur of the month Tuesday, will be joined by team qualifier survivors Alex Ratliff, Davis Bunn, Chris Robb and Liam Johnston.

"Now that we've got a USGA champion on our team, it prepares us to work harder and fight for that next level," Bunn said. "We all want to play well. We're always competing against each other with little matches here and there.

"Practicing against Fox, and having him as the U.S. Am champ, we want to practice against him."

They want to beat him, too -- in chipping drills, putting drills, three-hole matches and other games they play -- so they can say they beat the best.

"For everybody on this team, the confidence level may have risen a little bit," Guhne said. "It's improved their confidence because they know where they stand against Fox every day."

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