WACO, Texas - The Baylor men's golf team opens its spring season Monday in San Antonio, Texas, at the UTSA Oak Hills Invitational. The two-day, 54-hole tournament will be held at Oak Hills Country Club.

"I love the golf course," head coach Mike McGraw said. "It's a short golf course, but you have a lot of interesting nooks and crannies. You still have to play well even though it's short."

The Bears finished the fall season ranked No. 7 nationally in the GCAA Coaches Poll after recording four top-3 team finishes in five tournaments. Baylor claimed a tournament title at the Gopher Invitational and third-place finishes at the Fighting Illini Invitational and the Rod Myers Invitational, along with a second-place finish at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate.

"You feel like you are getting a fresh new start when you are going out here in February, so that part feels good," McGraw said. "It's always exciting to see who did the right amount of work and good work over the break to get themselves ready to play in the spring semester. We have a bigger tournament schedule, so that part is exciting too. We know we are going to play a lot more tournaments at some great golf courses."

This spring marks the final set of tournaments for the team's four seniors including Kyle Jones, Mikkel Bjerch-Andresen, Filippo Zucchetti and Niclas Mansson.

"I hope that they achieve some of the goals they set out to achieve when they were freshmen," McGraw said. "I hope some of the goals they have this year are bigger and better than they ever thought before. We have some kids who played well in the fall. We have a lot of hope that they are going to finish off well. You always want your last memory of college golf to be a good one, so hopefully they can finish well."

"I'm trying to do my best to remind my kids that it's really just about today, and trying to make sure that you feel confident today," McGraw said. "I can't deal with the goals we have in mind now because those are in the future. All I have is today. I tried to have the guys out there playing every day this week so they would be in a scoring mindset, instead of a ball striking mindset, headed into this event."

The Bears will be competing in a 15-team field, which includes UTSA, Tulsa, Texas State, Sam Houston State, Northern Colorado, North Texas, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, Central Arkansas, Oklahoma, Houston Baptist, Denver and Wichita State. Baylor won this tournament in 2000 and 2006, finished second in 2014 and took third place in 2012 and 2013.

"The team has had good success here in the past," McGraw said. "They have either finished first or second here almost every year that they've played in it. I think all of the guys are looking at it as a big tournament for us since it is our first one, and a couple of guys have had some pretty good success at this tournament."

Jones won the individual tournament title each of the last two years, and Bjerch-Anderson is returning to the lineup after finishing the fall with a victory at Royal Oaks. They are joined by teammates Andreas Gjesteby, Frederik Andersen and Zucchetti. Nick Thornton will be competing as an individual.

"I am excited about getting going again after sitting around in the prelude and the waiting," McGraw said. "Some people say they wish they had more time, but I think these kids are ready. They are chomping at the bit to have a chance to get out there and compete, so they will have their chance this week."

Monday's first round is an 8 a.m. CT shotgun start, and teams will continue play with the second round in the afternoon. Tuesday's final round will be played with tee times starting at 7:30 a.m.

Live scoring for the tournament will be available at www.birdiefire.com. Follow the official twitter feed of Baylor men's golf, @BaylorMGolf, for updates throughout the season.