It’s already been a history-making year for Western Kentucky golfer Luke Fuller, so why not add a little more history before the fifth-year senior calls it a career on the Hill.

Fuller gets that chance starting Monday when he competes in the NCAA Men’s Golf Regional at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Indiana. He is the first WKU men’s golfer to compete in a region since Billy Tom Sargent and Stuart Easton in 2019.

“I’m pretty excited,” Fuller said. “We’ve been up to Purdue in the fall for a tournament. Unfortunately, it was on the other course but I’ve got a teammate that has played up there his whole life (Nic Hoffman). He’s going to kind of show me around.”

Fuller earned an automatic bid to the region after winning the Conference USA Tournament in Texarkana, Texas earlier this month – becoming WKU’s first-ever Conference USA individual champion and the first player in the program to win an individual title. He finished the tournament with a 7-under par 209 – opening with a 68 and continuing to build from there.

“I didn’t really think about it that much,” Fuller said. “I knew it had been a while since someone had won conference, but that was not something I was thinking about.”

Fuller did admit the biggest motivation was getting the chance to continue his collegiate career.

“We were kind of joking about it there the first couple of rounds when I was leading,” Fuller said. “The other guys were like, ‘Man, you really don’t want to be done?’ I was like, ‘I guess not.’ ”

The Conference USA win is the culmination of what Fuller himself describes as a solid year. He finished his season with three top-five finishes and was second on the team with a 71.8 stroke average.

“I didn’t do anything special,” Fuller said. “I feel like my game was in a good spot for a long time. I was kind of trending this whole spring. I had a tough tournament at Sea Palms (in the Western Carolina-hosted People’s Championship), but other than that I feel like I played really solid. Going into the week I felt like I could play well and get it done.”

WKU men’s golf coach Austin King said Fuller has just been consistent all season.

“Like he said, he was playing really solid all spring,” King said. “Luke’s game is very steady. It’s very reliable and that was perfect for Texarkana Country Club. He’d been around it a good bit. I’d been around it a good bit too, so I had a good feeling it was going to set up for him. From the start, he was an absolute rock.”

King added that Fuller’s CUSA title can be a good recruiting piece for the program going forward.

“It puts us on the map, but I think it just shows you can come here and you can win,” King said. “You have a really, really great college golf career here and it can set you up for what’s next.”

Fuller is one of 10 individual competitors in the field, with 13 teams also participating in the three-day event. One of the individual golfers in the field is Owen Stamper, a Scottsville native who is now at Middle Tennessee. Fuller said he doesn’t know him well, but it would be cool if they could pair together.

The top five teams and lowest individual round not from those teams advance to the national championship, which takes place May 24-29.

“I would love to play great and make a national championship,” Fuller said. “I think I am certainly capable of that. I guess that is the No. 1 goal.

“I’m going to have to play my best goal obviously, but again I am confident. I’ve played really well. I am certainly capable of doing it.”

King said he believes Fuller has a good shot to be in the mix come the final round.

“I think he can go contend this week and be in the hunt, no doubt,” King said. “From what I know about the golf course, it is a golf course where you have to hit it straight and you have to manage your game well and that’s what he is really, really good at.”{&end}