Tide Golfers Headed to Hootie At Bulls Bay Intercollegiate
3/25/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
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TUSCALOOSA – After claiming the tournament championship at its own Conrad Rehling Spring Invitational on March 13th, the University of Alabama golf team returns to the course Easter Sunday for the 1st Annual Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate Golf Tournament. The three day, March 27-29th event benefits The Hootie and The Blowfish Foundation. It will be held at Bulls Bay Golf Club in Awendaw, South Carolina.
The tournament will feature a concert by Hootie and the Blowfish whose charity supports education and school music programs in South Carolina and nationwide.
The teams in the field include Alabama, Auburn, Augusta State, Clemson, the College of Charleston, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, LSU, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest.
Alabama’s five golfers competing in the tournament will include Thomas Hagler, Clint Provost, Mark Harrell, Gator Todd and Joseph Sykora. That quintet led Alabama to the tournament title in its last event, the Conrad Rehling.
“I think our confidence is very high right now, especially after winning,” said Alabama golf coach Jay Seawell. “And it needs to be because we are going into the stretch of the season right now where you need to have your confidence and your game because you are playing up against some strong competition. Our next two regular season tournaments are great tournaments with great fields, and then of course we play in the conference tournament after that, so we need to have our confidence level high in these next three to four weeks if we are going to be successful.”
Seven top-25 ranked teams are in the field, including No. 2 Georgia Tech, No. 3 Georgia, No. 5 Auburn, No. 6 Wake Forest, No. 16 Augusta State, No. 18 Clemson and No. 22 Kentucky. Two more, South Carolina and North Carolina, are receiving votes in the March 11-25 Golf Coaches Association of America rankings.
“Basically, this field has an ACC/SEC flair,” said Seawell referring to the teams represented from the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference. “This is one of those fields where you’d better play really well if you want to have a good finish.”
Alabama’s five participants include three golfers who have very close stroke averages this season. All three have played in all eight events this season for the Crimson Tide. Thomas Hagler checks in with the lowest at 72.08. Clint Provost has a 72.79 stroke average this season and Mark Harrell’s is 72.88. Gator Todd is next at 73.17 in six tournament appearances, and Joseph Sykora has played in seven tournaments and is averaging 74.48. Provost is the only veteran on Alabama’s team of the four. Hagler transferred to Alabama from Augusta State and is in his first season with the Tide. Harrell and Todd are true freshmen, and Sykora is a redshirt freshman.
“I think that Clint and Thomas are really the key to our next two weeks,” said Seawell. “They are the older of our players. The other three guys are freshmen. This is that time of the year that we really need the older guys to step up, and they have been. And I just think that if Thomas and Clint have good weeks then our team is going to do very, very well.”
