RANCHO SANTA FE, CA —- The Georgia men’s golf team qualified for the NCAA Championships on Saturday by placing fourth in the San Diego Regional at The Farms Golf Club.
The top five schools from the San Diego Regional moved on to the NCAAs, which will be held May 29-June 3, 2015 at The Concession Golf Club in Brandenton, Fla. Joining the Bulldogs from San Diego were Oklahoma, Arizona State, Georgia Tech and Virginia.
After Thursday’s opening round, the Bulldogs stood 12th at 19-over 307 and were 10 shots out of fifth place. But they bounced back on Friday with a 10-under 278 to jump to fifth and closed with a 3-under 285 to come in fourth at 6-over 870.
“I really could not be prouder of our guys,” Georgia coach Chris Haack said “They showed tremendous resolve over the last two rounds and we can definitely carry that momentum into the NCAAs. Our goal has been to get to the NCAAs and go after another national title. But we knew we couldn’t do that without closing strong here. We did just that, so here we are. We’re excited about reaching another NCAAs.”
Oklahoma won the Regional at 21-under 843, followed by Arizona State at 1-under 863, Georgia Tech at 5-over 869 and Virginia at 10-over 874.
Junior Lee McCoy paced the Bulldogs on Saturday with a 3-under 69. Sophomore Greyson Sigg signed for a 1-under 71, followed by senior Mookie DeMoss at even-par 72 and freshman Zach Healy at 1-over 73. Junior Sepp Straka had the Bulldogs’ non-counting score 7-over 79.
McCoy placed fifth individually at 4-under 212, six shots shy of Arizona’s Jon Rahm, and DeMoss finished seventh at 2-under 214. Healy wound up at 4-over 220, followed by Sigg at 9-over 225 and Straka at 19-over 235.
The field for the 2015 NCAAs will be Arizona State, Auburn, Charlotte, Clemson, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Houston, Illinois, LSU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon, San Diego State, SMU, South Carolina, South Florida, Southern Cal, Stanford, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, UAB, UCLA, UNLV, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Washington.
Under Haack, the Bulldogs have moved onto the NCAAs in five straight years and 17 of his 19 campaigns. Haack led the Bulldogs to the 1999 and 2005 national titles and to runner-up finishes in 2007 and 2011.