Tide Golfers Will Compete at Puerto Rico Classic
2/27/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
TUSCALOOSA ?? It’s a seaside reunion that’s a major business trip. For the first time this season, the five University of Alabama golfers who competed together and finished sixth at the 2007 NCAA Championships will compete together.
So deep has been the Crimson Tide’s golf talent this season that, despite returning all five golfers from a 2007 team that won four team tournament championships and was ranked No. 1 in the nation from September through February, Alabama has used the same lineup only twice this season. Much of it is due to the emergence since last summer of Matt Hughes, the Dalton, Ga., native who powered his way into the 2007 U.S. Amateur field in August.
Alabama is in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico this week where it will officially begin play on Friday with the first round of the 2008 Puerto Rico Classic. Representing Alabama are 2007 U.S. Amateur finalist and returning Ping All-American Michael Thompson, 2007 U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur participant Mark Harrell, two-time tournament champion Joseph Sykora, All-Southeastern Conference golfer Gator Todd and three-time U.S. Amateur participant Matthew Swan.
“The unique thing about this week is this is the first time the returning team from the NCAA last year has played together,” said Alabama head coach Jay Seawell. “We haven’t played this lineup yet. This is the first time we’ve played it, and so I’m interested to see how it goes. We had a very successful team. This team won many tournaments last year and did some great things. It’s a credit to our team. It’s been deep and some other guys are playing well. This is the first time these five have played together so it’s something that’s going to be interesting to see and exciting to see, and I think some good things are going to happen.”
Though the annual tournament, hosted by Purdue, takes place in a tropical vacation destination, it’s anything but a vacation for the field of 15 teams. It is heavy with Top 25 ranked teams, including Alabama which is ranked No. 2 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings and No. 3 in the Golf World Nike Coaches’ poll. The field in Puerto Rico includes Alabama, Clemson, Duke, East Tennessee State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kent State, Michigan, Minnesota, N.C. State, Northwestern, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Texas and Virginia Tech.
Georgia is ranked No. 1 in both the Golfweek and Golf World rankings. Alabama is No. 2/No. 3. Clemson is No. 16/No. 13; Duke No. 13/No. 12; East Tennessee State No. 24/No. 29; and Georgia Tech No. 6/No. 8 and No. 4/No. 5 Oklahoma State.
“We’re going to paradise, and so the mindset sometimes can be, ??oh, you want to get away and go to warm weather,’ or whatever,” said Seawell. “That might be a little bit of the case but basically you go there because the best teams are there. We’ll be there. Georgia will bet there. Oklahoma State and there are a couple of other top 15 teams. So you’ve got a chance again to play against the best teams on a very good golf course where they played the World Amateur a few years ago. So while it’s a great destination, you’re going there because you are going to play a college golf tournament against the best teams.”
It’s Alabama’s second spring tournament of five regular season spring events. Last year Alabama finished fourth of 18 teams at the 2007 Puerto Rico Classic with Swan finishing just two strokes back (69-69-73/211) of the medal and finishing fifth at 5-under par. In fact the same five that competed for Alabama in Puerto Rico return. Sykora finished T-22nd there last year at even par. Todd finished 1-over and tied for 24th. Thompson finished tied for 33rd at 3-over par and Harrell, who had an encounter with a very large iguana crossing his path last year during play on that Rio Mar course, finished tied for 39th. Georgia is the defending champion and Georgia Tech’s Roberto Castro and Stanford’s Joseph Bramlett tied to be co-medalists.
Seawell says he’s hoping Alabama’s win in the season opener will give the Tide a boost going into play this weekend. It was the second year in a row Alabama won the John Hayt and the third of three possible 2007 tournament championships Alabama successfully defended by winning the tournaments again this season.
“I’m very proud of how we played. Anytime you defend, it’s a big deal. We did it all three times which makes this team special. How we did it, we went up against a great team in UCLA. It was head-to-head the last three holes. You can’t teach that. So I think there’s some confidence coming from last week. We have a lineup change though with Gator coming in and Matt (Hughes) coming out. I don’t think that will have any effect on the team. We’ve gone with four different lineups this year so we might as well see if we can do it with five. But I think the team is riding high off last week. And I think they’re excited to see how they can do it this week.”
