Georgia validated its No. 1 seed for the Southeastern Conference Men’s Golf Championship on Friday by finishing stroke play with an 8-shot advantage.
The Bulldogs will be the top seed for the match play portion of the tournament, which will begin on Saturday. Georgia will open against No. 8 Texas A&M. The other matchups will be No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 7 South Carolina, No. 3 Tennessee vs. No. 6 Vanderbilt, and No. 4 LSU vs. No. 5 Arkansas.
Georgia will tee off in 10-minute increments between 7:30 and 8:10 a.m. for the quarterfinals. The winning teams will advance to Saturday’s semifinals at approximately 1 p.m. The championship match is slated for Sunday at 7:30 a.m. SEC Network + will have digital coverage of the semifinals, while the championship match will air on the SEC Network.
Playing Sea Island Golf Club’s par-70, 7,005-yard layout on the Seaside Course, the Bulldogs closed on Friday with a 3-under 277 to wind up at 2-over 842. Alabama, Tennessee, and LSU finished in a three-way tie for second at 10-over 850.
“We are proud of the work we’ve done this week,” Georgia head coach Chris Haack said. “We have played really well and put together some solid rounds. But we all know that the job’s not done yet. We have a tough road ahead of us in match play. This is perhaps the most challenging conference in the country, so anyone you square off against is going to be formidable.”
“It was a great team effort today,” said fifth year Spencer Ralston, who finished as the 54-hole runner-up. “We played solid in some tough conditions and completed our first goal of the week, which was to win stroke play. Saturday is where the fun starts. We don’t get in much match play throughout the season so it’s slightly different but hopefully we can feed off of our stroke play and use that confidence this weekend.”
On Friday, the Bulldogs counted 1-under 69s from senior Davis Thompson, junior Eli Scott, and sophomore Connor Creasy, and an even-par 70 from junior Trent Phillips. Ralston had Georgia’s non-counting score of 1-over 71.
Ralston landed in second at 4-under 206, two shy of Arkansas’ Segundo Pinto. Thompson came in third at 2-under 208 and Creasy placed 12th at 3-over 213, followed by Scott at 7-over 217 and Phillips at 8-over 218.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Saturday, April 24
7:30-9:00 a.m. TEE TIMES FOR MATCH PLAY QUARTERFINALS
1:00-2:40 p.m. (approximate) TEE TIMES FOR MATCH PLAY SEMIFINALS
Sunday, April 25
7:30-8:10 a.m. TEE TIMES FOR MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP