ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — The Georgia men’s golf team exited the 2017 Southeastern Conference Championship at Sea Island Golf Club on Saturday with a ninth-place finish following 54 holes of stroke play.
For the first time, the SEC is utilizing an 8-team match play to determine its team champion. Following Saturday’s round, the Bulldogs landed at 16-over 856 – four shots out of the eighth-place position.
Georgia now will wait to find out its NCAA Regional assignment. The NCAA Regionals will take place May 15-17 at six locations around the country.
“We played good in the last round and gave ourselves a chance coming down the stretch,” Georgia head coach Chris Haack said. “We putted the ball horrendously all week. So the message to these guys is to understand how previous each shot is. I think they can all find four or five shots that would’ve made a huge difference.”
The Bulldogs had their best effort of the weekend on Saturday as they posted a 4-under 276. Senior Greyson Sigg and freshman Spencer Ralston paced Georgia with 2-under 68s, while freshman Trevor Phillips added a 1-under 69 and sophomore Tye Waller signed for a 1-over 71. Sophomore Jack Larkin Jr. had the Bulldogs’ non-counting score of 5-over 75.
Sigg came in fifth individually at 5-under 205, five shots in back of Florida’s Alejandro Tosti. Phillips wound up at 4-over 214, followed by Ralston at 6-over 216, Waller at 11-over 221 and Larkin at 19-over 229.
“There were a lot of positives,” Ralston said. “We hit it very well, but we had our worst putting tournament of the year. We’ve got a couple of weeks before Regionals, so we can fix the putting woes a little bit and get some momentum.”
The eight squads advancing to match play were Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, LSU, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Ole Miss and Missouri. The Bulldogs were tied for ninth with Auburn.?