ATHENS, G.A. — The Georgia men’s golf team claimed the title on Monday, March 16th, 2015 in the Southern Intercollegiate Championships at Athens Country Club.
The Bulldogs fired a 1-under-par 575 in the 36-hole event to post a 13-shot victory over Georgia State. The title is the Bulldogs’ third this season and the 56th in Georgia coach Chris Haack’s career.
Medalist honors went to Georgia State’s J.J. Grey at 4-under 140.
The Bulldogs were led by senior Nicholas Reach and junior Sepp Straka, who posted 1-under 143s and wound up fourth. Sophomore Greyson Sigg placed 10th at 1-over 145, followed by junior Lee McCoy in 12th at 2-over 146 and senior Mookie DeMoss in 17th at 3-over 147.
Playing as individuals, freshmen Zach Healy and Jaime Lopez Rivarola were fourth at 1-over 143 and senior Sam Straka came in 38th at 9-over 153.
“I’m pretty happy with the way the day went for us,” Haack said. “It’s always good to win, but we had to work hard to get it and that’s good, too. We were up just one shot after the first round, so to see us get it going over the second 18 was gratifying. It was also good to see that we can win with a balanced effort instead of having to rely on just one guy. We got better today and we can build on this moving forward.”
The SICs were the brainchild of Georgia athletic director Herman Stegeman and Athens Country Club founder Lon Dudley in 1934. The first tournament was held in 1935 and ran annually through 1942. It resumed in 1946 and was held through 1965, then was relaunched in 1975 and ran through 1990.
Previous individual medalists include Wake Forest’s Arnold Palmer in 1950, Oklahoma State’s Bob Tway in 1979 and Centenary’s Hal Sutton in 1980. Georgia’s winners include Lester Kelly in 1955, Bob Moser in 1959, Cobby Ware in 1960, Vinny Giles in 1966, Chip Beck in 1976, 1977 and 1978, Paul Claxton in 1989 and Franklin Langham in 1990.
Since the 1996-97 season, Haack has led the Bulldogs to at least one win in 17 of his 19 seasons, including the 1999 and 2005 national championships and seven SEC titles. He extended his own school record for most victories by a Georgia golf coach.
The Bulldogs will return to action Saturday and Sunday in the Linger Longer Invitational. Georgia is the defending champion.