Alabama
Puerto Rico Classic
Alabama Men’s Golf Opens 2017 Spring Season at Puerto Rico Classic
2/18/2017 8:40:00 AM | Men's Golf
The Tide has won the event in six of the last nine years including last season’s tournament title
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama men's golf team will tee up the 2017 spring season with the Puerto Rico Classic in Rio Del which will take place Feb. 19-21 at the 6,945-yard, par-72 Rio Mar Country Club River Course. The Tide has taken home the championship in six of the last nine years at the event, including last season.
"The spring is always the exciting time," head coach Jay Seawell said. "We've had a nice time off through the winter, November and December and a little bit of January, so I think the guys are energized and looking forward to the spring season. Puerto Rico's not a bad place to go. We're going to fly into summer basically, which we're excited about. It gives us five great days of practice and great competition."
The Tide finished the fall season receiving votes from the Bushnell Golfweek Coaches Poll and will be competing against four NCAA top 25 ranked teams from the Bushnell Golfweek Coaches Poll, including No. 10 Georgia, No. 18 Mississippi, No. 19 North Carolina and No. 21 Clemson. Also in the field is tournament host Purdue, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Maryland, Middle Tennessee State, Ole Miss, North Carolina State, Northwestern, Ohio State and Virginia Tech.
Junior Lee Hodges will lead the Tide into the spring, after finishing the fall season with a team leading stroke average of 71.78 and a +1.11 average against par. Hodges owned a team-leading four rounds of par or lower and had the team's best individual finish, coming in third at the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate. He was the only member of the Crimson Tide to have every one of his fall rounds count towards the team score.
"I'm excited. We've been working really hard," Hodges said. "I think we're getting things turned around. It just lifts everybody's spirits, you know, being at the beach and playing some fun courses like that. We'll have a good time."
Sophomore Davis Riley is coming off a stellar summer that saw him reach match play rounds at both the 2016 Western Amateur Championship and the 2016 U.S. Amateur Championship where he tied the course record with a round of 64. As a true freshman last season, Riley earned honorable mention All-America honors and also earned a spot on the all-conference team.
Hodges and Riley will be joined by junior Jonathan Hardee, redshirt freshman Josh Sedeno and junior Steven Setterstrom in the lineup for the Crimson Tide this week.
The 54-hole event begins Sunday with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. ET (7 a.m. CT) and will play 18 holes every day, concluding on Tuesday. Live scoring can be found at www.birdiefire.com.
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Players Mentioned
