Alabama
SEC Championships
Alabama Finishes Runner Up in Stroke Play at 2021 SEC Men’s Golf Championships, Advances to Match Play Saturday Morning
4/23/2021 3:23:00 PM | Men's Golf
The Crimson Tide will take on South Carolina in the quarterfinals with the winner advancing to the semifinals Saturday afternoon
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The Alabama men's golf team finished the stroke play portion of the 2021 Southeastern Conference Men's Golf Championships on Friday, closing the three-day, 54-hole event with a team total of 10-over par 850 (284-277-289). As a result, the Crimson Tide finished in a three-way tie for second with No. 19 Tennessee and No. 23 LSU, eight strokes back of stroke play champion No. 10 Georgia (842).
The Crimson Tide earned the No. 2 seed in the match play portion with a tiebreaker and will take on No. 7 seed South Carolina in Saturday morning's quarterfinals. The winner of the quarterfinal match will advance to the semifinals to take on the winner between No. 3 Tennessee and No. 6 Vanderbilt Saturday afternoon. That match will be streamed live on SEC Network+. The championship match will be held Sunday morning and can be seen live on SEC Network.
In addition to the top four seeds, No. 22 Arkansas (852) earned the fifth seed and No. 15 Vanderbilt (853) will be sixth seed, while South Carolina (855) and No. 11 Texas A&M (856) round the eight-team field, respectively. Georgia will square off with the Aggies with LSU taking on the Razorbacks on the other side of the bracket.
This year marks the 20th season the SEC Men's Golf Championships the annual event, which is being held on the par-70, 7,005-yard Sea Island Golf Club's Seaside Course.
Head Coach Jay Seawell's Comments
"In this match play format, all you are looking for is a weekend tee time and that's what we got. It wasn't easy to reach match play, but we are playing in the best golf conference in the country and there are a some really good teams who are not playing this weekend. It was a great accomplishment for our guys to finish second overall in stroke play. I am proud of how we responded to the adversity we have faced this year and especially over the last six weeks or so. We have come a long way. We are going to go into this weekend with the same type of approach and mindset we had during stroke play. We are going to take it one match at a time and get prepared to face a very good South Carolina team."
Highlights
- JP Cave carded Alabama's second-lowest round of the day with a 1-over par 71, which helped him finish play tied for 12th overall with a 54-hole score of 3-over 213 (70-72-71)
- It marks his first career top-20 finish and the first time he's led the Crimson Tide in a tournament this year
- Both Thomas Ponder (71-67-74) and Canon Claycomb (74-70-70) tied for 20th overall to give UA three golfers among the top 20
- Claycomb owned the team's low round of round three with his second consecutive even-par score, collecting three birdies and three bogeys on the day to earn his second top-20 finish on the year
- Meanwhile, Ponder collected his team-leading fourth top-20 result and his second round 67 was the eighth round in the 60s on the year to rank second-best on the team
Other Performers
- Wilson Furr ended play at 6-over par 216 (73-71-72) and tied for 28th overall
- Davis Shore rounded out the Crimson Tide with a 218 (70-69-79) to end play in 39th position overall
Fun Fact
- Alabama took advantage of the par 3 holes throughout stroke play, leading the field with an average of 3.03 (+2) with the next closest team at 3.12 (+7)
Next Up
- Alabama's Thomas Ponder will be the first to tee off Saturday's quarterfinal opening match against USC's Caleb Probeaux at 7:20 a.m. CT (8:20 a.m. ET)
- The first team to earn three points will move on to the semifinals
- Live scoring throughout the championships 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
