Alabama Begins Play at SEC Men’s Golf Championships Wednesday

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The Alabama Crimson Tide is set to begin postseason play when it competes at the 2022 Southeastern Conference Men's Golf Championships. The tournament will be contested Wednesday through Sunday, April 20-24, in Sea Island, Ga., on the par-70, 7,005-yard Sea Island Golf Club's Seaside Course.

The five-day event features both stroke play and match play competitions, beginning with 54 holes of stroke play from all 14 teams, with 18 holes contested on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. After the conclusion of stroke play, the top eight teams will advance to match play quarterfinals. Both the quarterfinal and semifinal matches will be held Saturday, followed by the championship match Sunday on SEC Network.

With a head-to-head record of 46-45-1 on the season, the Crimson Tide will have some added pressure to keep its record at .500 or better in order to maintain eligibility for NCAA Regional play which will be held May 15-17. Alabama will need to advance to match play to be considered for NCAA postseason competition.

About The SEC Championships

Live scoring throughout the championships can be found at Golfstat.com
The championship match will be broadcast live on SEC Network, with the semifinal matches streamed online on SEC Network+
Alabama has won the SEC golf championship five times, most recently in 2014
The tournament has been held at the Sea Island Golf Club since 2001, and the Tide has won four of its titles since that mark - 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2014 (also won 1979 SEC Championship)
Alabama finished second in stroke play in 2021 and fell to eventual champion Vanderbilt in the semifinals of match play

The Lineup

Alabama's starting five for the SEC Championships will be Canon Claycomb, Thomas Ponder, JP Cave, Charlie Nikitas and Dillon West
The Crimson Tide will be led by the trio of Claycomb, Ponder and Cave, who have competed in every tournament during the 2021-22 campaign
- Claycomb leads the Tide in stroke average (70.52) and average vs. par (-0.76) and captured his first career medalist honors at the Watersound Invitational to start off the spring season
- Ponder is second in both per round average (71.33) and average vs. par (+0.71) while earning a pair of top-10 finishes this season, including the first top-five finish of his career at the Jackson T Stephens Cup (T5th)
- Cave is coming off a top-20 finish at the Haskins Award Invitational, where he fired off a final-round 69 to finish at 2-under-par 214 (74-71-69). He is third on the team with a 72.90 stroke average.
Nikitas, a graduate transfer from Miami (Ohio) who joined the Tide this spring has competed in the Tide's lineup three times, contributing eight of his nine rounds to Alabama's team total
- He is third on the team in average vs. par (+1.44) while averaging 73.11 strokes per round for the Tide this spring
West will round out the Tide's lineup, competing in his fifth event of the season
- His per round average stands at 73.17 while he also owns a +1.58 average vs. par

The Field

The 2022 SEC Championship field includes 10 of the nation's top-25 teams, with all 14 teams ranked in the top 65 according to Golfstat.com's most recent rankings
Reigning SEC champion No. 3 Vanderbilt leads the tournament field, with No. 10 Arkansas, No. 12 Georgia, No. 15 Auburn, No, 16 Florida, No. 18 Tennessee, No. 19 Texas A&M, No. 21 Ole Miss, No. 22 South Carolina and No. 25 LSU joining them in the top 25
No. 42 Alabama and No. 45 Missouri also rank inside the top 50, with No. 57 Mississippi State and No. 63 Kentucky rounding out the 14-team field

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.