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| Senior Harris English is the low Buldog at the NCAA Championship, currently tied for 3rd |
On the strength of the second-lowest round of the day, the Georgia men's golf team improved to fourth place at the NCAA Championships on Wednesday at Karsten Creek Golf Club.
The Bulldogs shot an even-par 288, bettered only by Illinois' 1-under 287, and stand at 3-over 579 through 36 holes. Georgia is six shots behind tournament leader Georgia Tech, and, perhaps more importantly, 11 shots better than eighth-place teams Texas A&M and Ohio State. After Thursday's round, the top eight teams will move onto match play to determine the national champion.
"We knew coming out here, it would take three good rounds," Georgia coach Chris Haack said. "You just can't make any mistakes. We've got two in the books and one more to go. We've got to go out and play solid and keep the same mindset. We've got to play the golf course as it comes. I want us to do what we've been doing: hit the fairways and the greens and stay out of trouble as much as you can. It feels good to be in the hunt. We're in a position to kind of control our own destiny, and that's where we want to be."
Senior Harris English and sophomore Bryden Macpherson paced the Bulldogs with 1-under 71s on Wednesday. Senior Russell Henley added an even-par 72, while senior Hudson Swafford signed for a 2-over 74. Sophomore T.J. Mitchell had the Bulldogs' non-counting score of 9-over 81.
English improved to 3-under 141, two shots behind John Peterson of LSU. English is vying to join George Hamer (1946) as the only Bulldogs to capture medalist honors at the NCAAs. Ex-Bulldogs Ryuji Imada and Chris Kirk had NCAA runner-up efforts. The 2011 champion will be crowned following Thursday's round.
Also Wednesday, Swafford moved to 1-over 145, followed by Henley at 4-over 148, Macpherson at 9-over 153 and Mitchell at 11-over 155.
"We're definitely moving in the right direction," Macpherson said. "We've gotten off to a good start this week, and we can build on that. It's feeling really good here. If we just have some fun, I think it all will fall into place."
Swafford's round included a rarity as he and his playing partners -- LSU's Ken Looper and Texas' Toni Hakula -- all made eagles on the par-5, 570-yard 14th hole. Said Swafford, "That's pretty crazy. I don't think I've ever heard of that or seen that. I'm just glad I could be a part of it because it helped me."
The Bulldogs will tee off in the final round in 10-minute increments between 1:20 and 2 p.m. with their counterparts from Alabama and Oklahoma State. The weather forecast for Stillwater on Thursday calls for a high of 94 degrees with wind gusts reaching 20 miles per hour. Live scoring can be found at ncaa.com.
In other news, English, Henley and Swafford have been named to the All-Southeast Region by the Golf Coaches Association of America. Also, the Southern Golf Association announced Wednesday that Henley, on the heels of his victory in the Nationwide Tour's Stadion Classic at UGA, has been chosen as the National Amateur of the Month for May. Henley became just the second amateur to win a Nationwide Tour event.
