Tide Golfers Set for SEC Championship
4/13/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
TUSCALOOSA ?? The Crimson Tide women’s golf team will search for its first top-10 finish since 2002 this weekend when Alabama will travel to Franklin, Tenn., to compete in the 2006 SEC Championship. Hosted by Vanderbilt, the 54-hole event will be played at the Vanderbilt Legends Club on the Ironhorse Club beginning on Friday, April 14 and concluding on Sunday, April 16.
The Tide, who has finished 10th the past two years and 12th in 2003, will compete at a league championship for the first time under new head coach Mic Potter. Potter, who is no stranger to conference tournament success after winning 10 Southern Conference titles in 23 seasons as head coach at Furman, will search for his first SEC Championship this weekend.
Potter will lead a team that has shown flashes of brilliance this year but has struggled to put together a consistent showing from top-to-bottom during the regular season. The Tide has seemingly been able to post two outstanding scores at any given event but has been unable to support those scores with help from the remaining golfers in the lineup.
Despite that fact, and the fact that the team is fairly young, the Tide was able to put together a solid season in Potter’s first year at the helm. Alabama won its own UA-Ann Rhoads Invitational to open the fall campaign and tallied three more top-10 finishes in the spring season, including a fourth-place finish at the SunTrust Lady Gator in mid-March.
Leading the way for the Tide this season has been standout junior Jenny Suh. Suh, who won the Southern Conference individual title at Furman last season, has put together another All-American type season in her first year at the Capstone. Suh owns the team’s lowest stroke average (73.17) and posted the team’s best score at seven of eight events this season.
Suh won medalist honors at the ACC/SEC Challenge in October and finished in the top 10 seven times in eight attempts, giving her 19 career top-10 finishes. She has four rounds under par this season and is the only Tide player to have accomplished that feat.
Another candidate for contention for the Tide is sophomore Sarah Sturm. As a freshman last season at Furman, Sturm finished ninth at the Southern Conference Championship. She owns the second-best stroke average on the team (77.21) and earned a runner-up finish at the SunTrust Lady Gator earlier this spring. That effort was the only time that anyone other than Suh posted the lowest overall score for Alabama this season.
Laura Goodwin, a true freshman who has competed in each of the team’s eight events this year, could also be a factor. Goodwin has found her groove after struggling a bit earlier in her first collegiate campaign, as she has averaged 76.4 strokes in her last seven rounds after averaging 81.2 in her first 17 rounds.
Seniors Carina Sorensen and Audrey Gale should also provide some experienced leadership for the team this weekend. Sorensen had a top-10 finish for the Tide at the UA-Ann Rhoads Intercollegiate in the fall and was in the top 25 at last year’s SEC Championship. Gale has two top-20 finishes to her credit this season.
As always at the SEC Championship, the field is stacked with some of the best teams in the nation. Six league teams are ranked in the top 20, including No. 4 Georgia and the defending SEC champions and fifth-ranked Auburn. Alabama is ranked No. 39 in the most recent Golfweek/Sagarin rankings.
The Tide is slated to tee-off at approximately 8:30 a.m. in the first round on Friday. The second and third rounds on Saturday and Sunday are also slated to begin at 8:30 a.m., with tee times to be determined after each round.
Results from the SEC Championship will be posted live on Golfstat.com, with recaps available on secsports.com and rolltide.com.
