Tide Golfers Go Into SEC Championships With Contending Squad
5/22/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
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TUSCALOOSA – When Dick Spybey travels to Sea Island, Georgia for this weekend’s 2002 Southeastern Conference Men’s Golf Championships, he’ll be packing with him a team that is considered a contender for the league’s championship title.
This year’s version of the Crimson Tide features a squad that has won one tournament championship, produced five top five team finishes (out of nine tournament appearances) and includes two NCAA individual qualifiers and two golfers whose stroke averages rank among the SEC’s top ten best this season.
“It’s an exciting week for us as it always is going into the conference championships,” said Spybey, the 1992 National Coach of the Year, “but it’s more so than in recent years. With the talent on this team and the strong play we have, I think this is a group that can go in and truly compete for the championship.
“Winning the championship has been one of our goals all season, and we are competing with four guys who saw this course last year and had success, so our hopes are high that we can better that this year. Add in our freshman Clint Provost into the mix—he’s had a tremendous year as a first year player, and our chances of performing well increase even more.”
The five men Alabama is sending to Sea Island to compete for the SEC team and individual championships include four veterans and one freshman. Leading the Tide is senior Nick Rousey of Pensacola, a 2001 NCAA tournament participant and All-SEC golfer who made JUCO history by winning back-to-back JUCO individual national championships at Central Alabama in 1999 and 2000. After transferring to Alabama last season, Rousey has been the Tide’s low stroke leader the past two seasons. He has a 72.04 season stroke average going into the SEC Championships, an average that ranks him among the top 10 in the league. He’s already won one individual tournament championship this season, setting the school record 54-hole total of 200 at Tennessee’s Coca Cola Tournament of Champions which included his round of 64 which tied a school record.
The other four include sophomore Lars Brovold whose had five top 25 finishes this season (73.04), 2001 NCAA tournament qualifier and All-SEC golfer Jan Are Larsen (74.27) who finished ninth at the 2001 SEC Championships, freshman golfer Clint Provost who is making his first SEC Championships appearance amid a season where he’s had two top 10 finishes and four additional top 20 finishes in his nine tournament appearances. Provost’s 72.30 stroke average as a freshman ranks among the top 10 low stroke averages in the SEC. And rounding out the Tide team will be junior Wesley Pate who has had two top 10 finishes during his Alabama career to date.
The winner of the 12 team SEC Championships this weekend earns the league’s automatic berth into the May 16-18 NCAA East Regional in Atlanta. Alabama’s play this season has merited it status as a team that will be considered for NCAA selection. Spybey would love to take the consideration out of the mix and make his team a solid pick by winning the league’s berth on Sunday.
“We knew going into the season that we had to play well in our tournaments to be at this point where we are still in contention for postseason play,” said Spybey. “We needed to compete well in tournaments where there was a strong mix of national and regional teams, and we did just that, so our chances look positive for the postseason. The easiest way to get that is to get the automatic berth by winning the SEC, so that’s our goal going into the weekend.”
