Alabama
NCAA Championships
Alabama Opens Play at the 2018 NCAA Men’s Golf Championships Friday
5/24/2018 9:02:00 AM | Men's Golf
Crimson Tide received the No. 5 overall seed and will tee off on Hole No. 1 at 12:42 p.m. CT
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The No. 5 Alabama men's golf team is set to open play at the 2018 NCAA Men's Golf Championships, which will be held May 25-30 in Stillwater, Okla., on the par 72, 7,460-yard Karsten Creek layout. The Crimson Tide, which will be paired alongside Vanderbilt and Florida through the opening two rounds, will tee off on Friday at 12:42 p.m. CT off Hole No. 1.
There will be three rounds of stroke play for the 30-team field with a cut to 15 teams after 54 holes. Those 15 teams will be whittled down to eight teams after a fourth round of stroke play. The eight teams will then begin three rounds of match play for the national title (1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5), which is slated to be held on May 29-30 (quarterfinals and semifinals will be played on May 29 and championship match will take place on May 30).
THE LINEUP: Alabama's lineup for the weekend remains the same as each of the previous four tournaments and is led by senior Lee Hodges and junior Davis Riley, both of whom earned first team All-SEC honors and are ranked among the top 30 golfers in the nation, according to the latest Golfweek/Sagarin individual rankings.
Hodges has led the Crimson Tide all season and has played some of his best golf during the spring campaign. In the Tide's seven tournaments tis spring, the Ardmore, Tenn., native has claimed two medalist honors (Puerto Rico Classic and Linger Longer Invitational), owns four top-10 finishes and five top-15 results. Hodges, who was tabbed the SEC Men's Golfer of the Week for the week of March 21, is currently ranked No. 21 in the nation according to the Golfweek/Sagarin individual rankings and tops the squad in stroke average (70.96), average vs. par (-0.30) and top-10 finishes (6).
Meanwhile, Riley has had an equally impressive season and enters the NCAA Championships ranked No. 26 in the nation according to the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings. The Hattiesburg, Miss., native ranks just behind Hodges in both stroke average (71.03) and average vs. par (-0.24). Riley claimed medalist honors at the Olympia Fields/Illini Invitational last fall, on his way to earning SEC Golfer of the Week recognition on Sept. 17. He tops the Tide with four top-five finishes, while his six top-10 results are tied with Hodges for the team lead. Riley earns his third straight All-SEC honors after being voted as a second-team all-league performer in each of the past two seasons.
Senior Jonathan Hardee ranks third on the team with a 72.45 per round average, while his 1.18 average vs. par also is third-best on the team. Freshmen Davis Shore (73.24) and Wilson Furr (73.29) round out the Tide's starting five. Furr has been one of the hottest golfers on the team as of late, recording three consecutive top-10 finishes including a third-place result at last week's NCAA Stockton Regional. Meanwhile, Shore had a season-best second-place finish in the Tide's final regular season tournament at the Mason Rudolph Championship.
ALABAMA'S NCAA HISTORY: With a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Pacific Regional on May 14-16, Alabama advanced to the NCAA Men's Golf Championships for the 11th time in head coach Jay Seawell's 16 years at the helm of the program, including seven of the last eight seasons. It marks the Tide's 20th appearance in school history. Alabama is in search of its third national title, having claimed two national championships (2013 and 2014) and one runner up finish (2012) – all of which have come over the past six seasons.
THE FIELD: Alabama was awarded the No. 5 seed in this year's NCAA Championships field. Top-ranked Oklahoma State is the overall No. 1 seed, followed by No. 2 Texas A&M, No. 3 Oklahoma, who is the defending national champions, No. 4 Vanderbilt and the Crimson Tide to round out the top five. Florida earned the No. 6 seed, while Auburn, Illinois, Baylor and Texas Tech are seeded seven through 10, respectively. In addition to Alabama, seven Southeastern Conference teams are among the 30-team field, which is tied with the Big 12 for most teams that reached this year's NCAA Championships from any conference. The PAC-12 and ACC are next best with four teams from each league.
HOW ALABAMA GOT HERE: Alabama reached this year's NCAA Championships thanks to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Pacific Regional on May 14-16. The Crimson Tide has been dominant throughout the 2017-18 season, boasting an overall record of 120-23-4 (.830). Through 11 tournaments this season, Alabama has four victories (Carpet Capital Collegiate, Jerry Page National Intercollegiate, Steelwood Collegiate and Linger Longer Invitational), to go along with 10 top-five results.
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
