Tide Golfers No. 3 in Golfweek Preseason Rankings
9/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
TUSCALOOSA ?? Golfweek has released its 2007-08 collegiate golf preseason Top 10, and it ranks the University of Alabama men at No. 3. Golfweek is considered one of the major collegiate rankings.
In its breakdown of each of the Top 10 teams on its website, www.golfweek.com, it answers the question, "Can win national title if:" For Alabama it says the "if" is if "the four seniors provide leadership and aren't satisfied with last season's success. U.S. Amateur runner-up (Michael) Thompson, a second-team All-American after transferring from Tulane, is an important piece of the puzzle, as are Mark Harrell, Gator Todd and Joseph Sykora. Junior Matthew Swan rounds out the returning starters, though junior Matt Hughes and freshman Spencer Cole could challenge for a spot."
Alabama finished sixth at the 2007 NCAA Championships, powered by Thompson's fourth-place individual finish. It finished No. 4 in the final 2007 Golfweek ranking. The Crimson Tide returns all five of the golfers that powered it to that top six finish, Thompson, Harrell, Todd, Sykora and Swan.
Stanford returns three of the golfers that helped lead it to the 2007 NCAA title and gets Golfweek's nod as the preseason No. 1 team after finishing No. 2 in its final ranking for 2007. At No. 2 in the preseason poll is UCLA, followed by Alabama, Georgia, USC, Florida, Clemson, UNLV, Duke, and Oklahoma State.
This past week in Japan, Alabama was one of four NCAA teams who competed in Japan against six Japanese collegiate teams at the TOPY Cup. Alabama finished second in the tournament, ahead of Stanford, Duke and Clemson who are ranked in the preseason Top 10. Sykora was the tournament's medalist.
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