TUSCALOOSA ?? In a season that has been filled with unprecedented feats, the No. 3 ranked University of Alabama golf team will aim for another goal that has only been reached once previously by the Crimson Tide??a Southeastern Conference Golf Championship.
Alabama will join the 11 other league teams Friday, April 20 through Sunday, April 22 at Seaside Golf Course in Sea Island, Ga., to compete for the 2007 SEC Golf Championships. The course is a par 70 with a layout of 6,898 yards. The 2007 tournament marks the seventh consecutive year the SEC has held its men’s golf championship there.
“The SEC Championship is by far, I believe, the most important tournament we play in because it is your conference and I believe the SEC is, if not the best, one of the best conferences in the country in golf,” said Alabama head coach Jay Seawell whose 2006 team, featuring then four sophomores and a freshman, finished third at the SEC Championships. “To prove that, we’re ranked No. 3 in the nation, and we’re not even the favorite. So that just shows you the strength of our conference. Georgia is ranked No. 1 in the nation and is playing great right now. So if we’re going to achieve our goals and compete at the highest level of our conference we’re going to have to play great.”
Representing Alabama, which has only won the SEC golf title once, in 1979, will be a veteran team. Four out of Alabama’s five golfers have all competed on that course at the league championships previously. Junior Mark Harrell, who has competed in every Alabama golf tournament since he stepped foot on campus as a freshman three years ago, is making his third SEC Championships appearance this weekend on the Seaside course as are his teammates and fellow juniors Gator Todd and Joseph Sykora. Todd finished T-11th at two over par at last year’s SEC’s. Sophomore Matthew Swan is making his second appearance there. He finished T-3rd at three under par as a freshman last year, shooting 68-67-72/207. The only Tide golfer new to the mix on that course will be junior Michael Thompson, an Arizona native who transferred to Alabama this season when the golf program at Tulane was disbanded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Asked if he thought that four-golfer-strong familiarity with the venue was a plus for the Tide, Harrell answered, ““Most definitely. You know we’ve got three guys that have played there multiple times, and then we’ve got Michael Thompson who is an outstanding player who has never played there but I still feel like with us giving him tips and helping him realize how to play the golf course we’ll still be alright.”
Alabama will go into the championships as a title contender, but it won’t be without its fellow heavyweights. Georgia, the league’s defending champion, goes into the weekend ranked No. 1 in the country. In fact, this is a power league where not one but two different teams have spent several week’s at the nation’s top spot. Alabama jumped into the No. 1 spot in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings in late September than slid into the No. 1 spot in the Golfworld/NIKE Coaches’ Poll and held on to the top spot from October 26, 2006 through February 21, 2007. Add to the mix a field that includes Florida, ranked among the Top 5 in both polls and two more Top 25 teams, Tennessee and Auburn.
“The field is awesome,” said Harrell, a two-time U.S. Amateur participant who finished second in stroke play at the U.S. Amateur last summer. “We’ve got three of the Top Five teams in the country in the SEC, so it makes it tough to win but it makes it even a greater accomplishment if we were to come out on top.”
Alabama’s 2006-07 team has played in nine tournaments this season and has won four of those, including three straight championships to open the season. The four team championships tie the school single season record, originally owned by a Jerry Pate-led 1972 Alabama golf team. Averaging 287.85 per round, this year’s Alabama team set the school 54-hole record in October by shooting 819, which was 33 under par at Old Overton Club, at the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate.
“We’ve been playing really good,” said Harrell. “We didn’t play too well last week (at the U.S. Collegiate Championships) but I think the long break---we had three weeks off from playing a tournament---that kind of hurt us a little bit. But I think not playing well there kind of got us fired up, and we’re looking forward to competing this week at SEC’s because that’s what we worked for all year. A championship ring sure would be nice.”
Four of Alabama’s five golfers rank among the top 14 in the league in stroke averages, led by Thompson’s 72.17 which is the fifth lowest stroke average in the SEC, trailing leader Chris Kirk of Georgia’s 71.46. Todd ranks ninth at 72.44, Swan 12th at 72.67 and Sykora is 14th at 72.95. Harrell ranks 22nd with his 73.33 stroke average.
