Following a runner-up finish at the 2009 Conference USA Championships, the men’s golf team is hoping to ride a wave of young talent back into first place.

SMU captured three consecutive conference titles (2004-05: Western Athletic Conference, 2006: C-USA) before placing fourth at the C-USA Championships in 2007 and 2008.

In April, the Mustangs fell to the University of Central Florida by just six strokes for the C-USA title, and SMU has 19 top-10 finishes since 2008.

According to head coach Jay Loar, the pieces are in place for this year’s squad to regain the top spot in the conference.

“We’re building a nucleus for a run like that,” he said. “The team right now is coming on strong, and I look for us to be pretty competitive this year.”

Individually, junior Kelly Kraft tied for sixth at the C-USA Championships with a score of 212, and he has been named C-USA Golfer of the Week five times in his career. In his first two seasons, the Denton Ryan product has won the Louisiana Classics, Mizzou Tiger Intercollegiate and Texas State Amateur.

“Kelly has a chance to be an All-American,” Loar said.

Sophomores James Kwon and Marc Sambol each picked up their first career C-USA Golfer of the Week honors last year.

Kwon won the Baylor Intercollegiate in late October and, by year’s end, was named All-C-USA with an invitation to the NCAA Regionals.

Last month, Sambol was one of three SMU golfers (along with fellow sophomores Max Buckley and Aaron Stewart) to qualify for the 2009 U.S. Amateur in Tulsa, Okla. Though none could match the success of former Mustang All-American Colt Knost, who won the event in 2007 in San Francisco, Loar called it a great accomplishment just to qualify for the U.S. Amateur.

“It shows they all learned a lot last year on the team, and it paid off,” he said.

In June, ground was broken on the SMU Payne Stewart Golf Learning Center at the Dallas Athletic Club. Featuring hitting bays, locker rooms and areas for study hall, coach Loar said the $3.2 million hub will help bring better players to the Hilltop.

“Because we can se out new golf facility at DAC,” he said, “we’re able to recruit more effectively.”

The team opens its 2009-10 season Sept. 13 at the Gopher Invitational in Wayzata, Minn. Road trips later in the year will bring the Mustangs to Rhode Island, Hawaii and Florida, to name a few places.

“We’re playing a pretty tough schedule, but I think we’ll do pretty well,” Loar said. “We’re working toward No.1.”