Alabama Wins Linger Longer Invitational Team Title, Dunlap Brings Home Medalist Honors

Tuesday, March 21

Greensboro, Ga.

Alabama

Linger Longer Invitational

Alabama Wins Linger Longer Invitational Team Title, Dunlap Brings Home Medalist Honors

3/21/2023 5:29:00 PM | Men's Golf

Final Results

The Crimson Tide wins its second team title of the season

EATONTON, Ga. – For the second time this season, the Alabama men's golf team has swept a team and individual tournament title. The No. 20 Crimson Tide carded a score of 14-under par 850 (283-287-280) to win the 2023 Linger Longer Invitational while freshman Nick Dunlap secured the individual medalist honor with a 10-under par 206 (70-66-70).

It marks the sixth time that the Crimson Tide has won the Linger Longer which is tied for the most in tournament history by any single team (previous wins include 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018). Additionally, this year's team becomes the 18^th UA squad in program history to win at least two tournaments in the same season (claimed the season-opening Rod Myers Invitational).

Meanwhile, Dunlap, who joins Canon Claycomb (Rod Myers Invitational) as individual winners this season, becomes the first Alabama freshman to win medalist honors since Robby Shelton did so in 2013-14. It is also the first time since 2018 that the Crimson Tide has had multiple individual tournament champions in the same year.

Including Dunlap, the Tide boasted three individuals that finished inside the top 10 as both JP Cave (-3) and Thomas Ponder (-1) finished inside tied for sixth and eighth, respectively.

Jay Seawell

"I am really proud of our guys, especially coming off a bad finish in our last tournament (Cabo Collegiate). We met as a team after that tournament and discussed how we felt that was not our identity. We are a good team and we reiterated that to them. We went out and had some good practices leading up to the Linger Longer, which was important. I couldn't be prouder of how the boys responded. Anytime you are coming off a poor tournament, you want to have the type of team that responds. That is exactly what we did.

"I thought Nick played incredible all week. You could see this coming. He's healthy, his confidence continues to grow and you could tell he was getting his mojo back."

Nick Dunlap

"It's a great feeling. Coming off our performance at Cabo we viewed this tournament as a bounce back. It feels good to win my first tournament, but to do it and help the team to a victory makes it even more sweet. It was a great team win today."

Tournament Highlights

Nick Dunlap became the fourth Alabama golfer to win medalist honors at the Linger Longer, joining Bud Cauley (2010), Cory Whitsett (2011, 2012, 2013) and Lee Hodges (2018)
Dunlap would go on to finish tied for first in par 5 scoring (-8, 4.33) and par 3 scoring (-2, 2.83)
Dunlap has now collected a team-leading 17 rounds of par or better
JP Cave ranked second in the field with 41 total pars to earn the second-best finish of his career with the sixth-place result at the event
Cave finished by carding three consecutive rounds of par of better to result in his 3-under par 213 (72-69-72)
Thomas Ponder carded the round of the day with his 4-under 68 Tuesday to result in his fourth top-10 finish of the season
Ponder, who collected his eighth round this year in the 60s on the day, finished at 1-under par 215 (72-75-68)
Canon Claycomb gave the Tide four finishers inside the top 25 with his 3-over 219 (72-77-70)
Jonathan Griz rounded out UA in 79^th overall with a 235 (69-79-87)
Jones Free, who is played as an individual, is in a tied for 18^th overall with 2-over par 218 (73-71-74)

Team Highlights

In addition to winning the 16-team event, the Crimson Tide defeat six additional ranked teams including No. 11 Georgia Tech (-6, 2^nd) and No. 1 Vanderbilt (E, 3^rd)
The top three were the only teams to finish at or below par on the day
Clemson (+3) finished fourth while No. 34 Georgia (+4) and Chattanooga (+4) tied for fifth

Up Next

The Crimson Tide will tee off the final regular seasons tournament when it competes at the Mossy Oak Collegiate in West Point, Miss.
The event will take place April 2-3
Live stats can be followed throughout the event on 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 Alabama Athletics on Facebook.