Men's Golf Sets Sights on 2015 Southeastern Conference Championship
4/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. - The No. 25 Alabama men's golf team begins postseason play this weekend when it competes at the 2015 Southeastern Conference championship. The three day, 54-hole event will be held April 17-19 at the Sea Island Golf Club on the par-70, 6,898-yard Seaside Course.
The Crimson Tide enters the conference tournament in pursuit of its fourth consecutive SEC title and sixth in program history. No team has won four straight SEC Championships since Florida accomplished the feat from 1991-94.
"This is always the best conference championship in the country," head coach Jay Seawell said. "We have to prepare our minds to handle the things that will come during a conference championship. The pressure is different and mistakes are bigger than they are during the regular season. We have talked about and need to understand that the mind of a player, especially a young player, is to think about winning a championship. It's easy to get too far ahead of yourself. We need to stay in the moment and worry about the shot-at-hand instead of letting your mind wander to thinking about winning."
If Alabama goes on to win this year's title, it will do so with a revamped line up from a year ago as sophomore Robby Shelton and junior Tom Lovelady are the lone returnees from last year's winning squad. Shelton finished third in last year's SEC Championship with a 10-under par 200, while Lovelady placed 43rd overall (217).
Shelton, who was recently announced as a Ben Hogan Award semifinalist, enters this year's event ranked No. 7 in the nation according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index. He leads the Tide in scoring average (70.44), which includes eight top-10 finishes (in nine tournaments) and is a combined 27-under par on the season.
Meanwhile, Lovelady is ranked No. 46 nationally according to Golfweek and ranks second on the team with a 72.00 per round stroke average. Lovelady has been the Tide's low scorer in three of the five tournaments this spring and has five top-10 finishes on the season.
Sophomore Dru Love, who has played well throughout the season including earning medalist honors at the Puerto Rico Classic in late February, will compete in his first SEC Championship event. However, he will have a leg up on the competition as the St. Simon's Island, Ga., native will be playing the event on his home course.
Rounding out the Tide's five players will be freshman Jonathan Hardee and sophomore Robby Prater.
The 54-hole tournament will be played Friday through Sunday and will feature some of the nation's most talented teams in one of collegiate golf's toughest leagues. Of the 14 teams in the conference, 10 are ranked in the Golfstat Top 50 and five are ranked in the top 25.
The 25th-ranked Crimson Tide will defend its league crown against No. 5 Vanderbilt, No. 6 South Carolina, No. 7 LSU, No. 15 Auburn, No. 30 Arkansas, No. 34 Georgia, No. 37 Florida, No. 39 Texas A&M and No. 50 Ole Miss, along with Kentucky, Mississippi State, Missouri and Tennessee.
Alabama also has produced four individual SEC champions in its history. Bobby Wyatt was the most recent Crimson Tide golfer to win the SEC title, doing so last year in record fashion with an Alabama and SEC record 18-under par 192. Nicklaus Award winner Justin Thomas claimed medalist honors in 2012. Michael Thompson snapped a streak spanning six decades with his win in 2008. Bobby Hill was the first Alabama player to be crowned league champion, winning the SEC title in 1952.
Alabama will be paired with Auburn and Arkansas in Friday's first round and will tee off at 7:20 a.m. CT (8:20 a.m. ET).
Live scoring for this year's tournament can be found at www.Golfstat.com.
Get all the latest information on the team by following @AlabamaMGolf, on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and AlabamaAthletics on Facebook.
Players Mentioned
