
No. 20 Alabama Men’s Golf Returns to Action Sunday at the Cabo Collegiate
2/26/2022 12:17:00 PM | Men's Golf
The 15-team field features five of the nation’s top-10 teams
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico – Fresh off its second-place finish at last week's Watersound Invitational, the No. 20 Alabama men's golf team will be back for its second tournament of the spring season, the Cabo Collegiate. The three-day, 54-hole tournament will be contested on the par-71, 6,807-yard Cabo del Sol – Cove Club Course Sunday-Tuesday, Feb. 27-March 1.
The Crimson Tide, one of 10 teams in the 15-team field ranked on Golfstat.com's top-30 including six ranked among the top-10 in the nation, will tee off the event Sunday morning.
The Lineup
- The Crimson Tide's lineup will be led by the trio of Canon Claycomb, JP Cave and Thomas Ponder, who have competed as part of Alabama's starting five every tournament of the 2021-22 campaign
- Claycomb is coming off of his first career medalist honor as he won the Watersound Invitational on his way to earning SEC Men's Golf of the Week accolades
- He leads the team in strokes average (70.66) and average vs. par (-0.33) for the year after his career-best 14-under par performance to open the spring season
- Cave also finished in the top-25 in the spring opener, concluding the event with back-to-back rounds of 3-under par 69, and will look to continue building momentum heading into the week
- Ponder has contributed 91.7 percent of his rounds to the team total this season, maintaining a 71.33 stroke average which is second-best on the team
- Charlie Nikitas, who made his Crimson Tide debut last week, and Simms Abney will round out the Tide's lineup
Tournament Preview
- This marks the third consecutive time that the event has been held in which Alabama has competed (cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic)
- The 15-team tournament field featured 10 ranked opponents and is headlined by six of the top 10 teams in the nation, according to Golfstat.com: No. 2 Arizona State, No. 3 Oklahoma State, No. 6 Texas Tech, No. 7 Arkansas, No. 8 Stanford and No. 10 Tennessee
- Other ranked teams in the field include: No. 16 Ole Miss, No. 20 Alabama, No. 21 Vanderbilt, No. 28 Arizona and No. 41 Florida State
- Baylor, California, Houston and Rice rounds out the competing teams
Last Time Out
- The Crimson Tide fired a 10-under par 854 (296-276-282) at its first tournament of the spring, the Watersound Invitational, finishing in second place
- Claycomb claimed medalist honors at the event, winning by eight strokes on the strength of a 14-under par 202 performance
- Alabama rallied from a 10-over par team total after the opening 18 holes to shoot 18-under par over the final two days to move up eight spots on the leaderboard into second place
Get all the latest information on the team by following @AlabamaMGolf on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. General athletic news can be found @UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and Alabama Athletics on Facebook.