TIFTON — Tift County hits the greens Saturday morning, with a 9 a.m. tee time at Spring Hill Country Club to inaugurate the season.

Saturday’s event, the Spring Hill Ryder Cup, will be a 12-team competition, according to head coach Marc Beach.

This is Beach’s first season leading the golf team, but he inherits a team with considerable depth. On the first day of practice Monday, Beach had 13 golfers on his roster.

Returnees include Ryan Moore, Tate Greer and Wilkes Webb. Beach pointed out that all three had participated at the state finals last May. Greer was Tift’s second leading scorer at the tournament, which took place at Braselton’s Chateau Elan. In addition to the veterans, there are younger golfers as well.

That is a help for the program, which Beach said will “make sure we have some for the future.”

The opening tournament, the Spring Hill Ryder Cup, is similar to the professional Ryder Cup in setup. The pros face off, Americans against Europeans. In Tifton, it will be north versus south, with six teams representing each area.

Southern teams are Tift, Valdosta, Lowndes, Colquitt County, Brookstone and Coffee. Among northern teams are Harrison, South Forsyth, Blessed Trinity, Dalton and Marist. Marist and Brookstone finished second in their respective classifications’ state tournaments in 2017.

The Blue Devils will have a busy spring on the links. Next Saturday they are set for the Camden Classic in Kingsland, followed by the Johnny Paulk Invitational at Jekyll Island March 3. After a trip to Athens March 17, Tift plays several of the area’s top tourneys: the Packer Invitational, the Dynamite Goodloe tournament in Valdosta and their own C.D. Moore Blue Devil Invitational April 2.