 |
| Sepp Straka returns to the Georgia lineup after redshirting in 2013-14. |
The Georgia men’s golf team will kick off the fall portion of the 2014-15 schedule this weekend in The Carmel Cup in Pebble Beach, Calif.
The Bulldogs, who were 11th at the 2014 NCAA Championships just three months ago, will begin the season with 54 holes on the Pebble Beach Links Friday through Sunday. Joining the Bulldogs will be SEC counterparts South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Arkansas along with Big 12 teams Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU and Texas Tech. Tee times and live scoring can be found at GolfStat.com.
Coach Chris Haack will open his 19th season in Athens with a lineup of senior captain Mookie DeMoss, senior Nicholas Reach, redshirt junior Sepp Straka, junior Lee McCoy, sophomore Greyson Sigg and freshman Zach Healy. The tournament format consists of six players with five counting (as opposed to the typical five players with four counting).
McCoy earned All-America and All-SEC honors a year ago as he posted a scoring average of 71.34 — second-best on the team. Reach ranked fourth with a scoring average of 72.70, Sigg was sixth at 73.07 and DeMoss was seventh at 73.50. Straka redshirted last season, while Healy will be making his Georgia debut. The Bulldogs won four events last season and their lone finish outside the top 10 was the 11th-place effort at the NCAAs.
This is the earliest the Bulldogs have ever opened the fall portion of their schedule. But this is the final year of The Carmel Cup and playing at Pebble Beach was an opportunity they did not want to pass up.
“The start of the season is always exciting and it’s even more exciting this year because we get to do it at Pebble Beach,” Haack said. “This is a world-class facility, one of the most famous in golf, so it’s an honor to get to participate. I’m also excited about seeing the way our team performs. It’s a new year, so we have to create our team identity and begin the process of building toward championships. The six guys played well in qualifying and I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do in this tournament.”
The Bulldogs will begin play at 1 p.m. on Friday with their counterparts from Vanderbilt, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.
• The Bulldogs are No. 5 in the initial GCAA Coaches Preseason Poll released on Thursday. Alabama and Oklahoma State shared the top spot, followed by No. 3 Georgia Tech and No. 4 Texas. Other SEC teams in the rankings include No. 9 LSU, No. 12 South Carolina, No. 16 Vanderbilt, No. 21 Auburn, No. 22 Arkansas
• The Bulldogs are No. 5 in the initial GCAA Coaches Preseason Poll released on Thursday. Alabama and Oklahoma State shared the top spot, followed by No. 3 Georgia Tech and No. 4 Texas. Other SEC teams in the rankings include No. 9 LSU, No. 12 South Carolina, No. 16 Vanderbilt, No. 21 Auburn, No. 22 Arkansas
