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Saturday, March 12, 2016

Georgia Prepares For Southern Intercollegiate

The second-ranked Georgia men’s golf team is set to host the Southern Intercollegiate on Monday. The one-day, 36-hole event will feature 14 total teams teeing off starting at 8:30 a.m. at the Athens Country Club. There is no fee for admission.

The Bulldogs will enter nine players in the field. The lineup will include seniors Lee McCoy and Sepp Straka, junior Greyson Sigg, sophomore Zach Healy and freshman Tye Waller. Matthew Beringer, Jack Larkin Jr., Jaime Lopez Rivarola and David Mackey will all compete as individuals.

“Playing tournaments is so different than practice or qualifying,” Georgia head coach Chris Haack said. “You actually get to see what guys are capable of doing when the light goes off. Being able to get everyone some experience, to post a score and to put a little pressure on everybody, that’s always a good thing to see how they’re going to perform. It will be fun to see all nine out there.”

Georgia took team honors at the 2015 Southern Intercollegiate after firing a 1-under-par 575 in the 36-hole event to win by 13 strokes.

“It’s a home tournament so it’s always cool to play out here at a course we all know pretty well,” Straka said. “It’s good to get that win in (in Mexico) going into this one and we’re kind of just trying to gear up at the right time here. We really want it to click by SECs and the postseason.”

The SICs were the brainchild of Georgia athletic director Herman Stegeman and Athens Country Club founder Lon Dudley in 1934. The first tournament was held in 1935 and ran annually through 1942. It resumed in 1946 and was held through 1965, then was relaunched in 1975 and ran through 1990. Past individual medalists include Wake Forest’s Arnold Palmer in 1950, Oklahoma State’s Bob Tway in 1979 and Centenary’s Hal Sutton in 1980.

Georgia will be joined by Arkansas, Augusta State, Francis Marion, Furman, Gardner-Webb, IUPUI, Kennesaw State, Liberty, Savannah State, Stetson, USC Upstate, Western Carolina and Youngstown State.