Bulldogs Set Their Sights On SEC Championship

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. --- The Georgia men’s golf team will join its fellow league members this weekend in the Southeastern Conference Championship at the Sea Island Golf Club on St. Simons Island.

The second-seeded Bulldogs will play Friday through Sunday on the par-70, 7,055-yard layout on the Seaside Course. Georgia is ranked No. 29 by Golfweek and No. 34 by Golfstat in this week's polls.

Georgia will use a lineup of senior Mookie DeMoss, juniors Lee McCoy and Sepp Straka, sophomore Greyson Sigg and freshman Zach Healy. This will be McCoy’s third and Sigg’s second conference tournament, while DeMoss, Straka and Healy will be making their SECs debut.

The Bulldogs will be paired with Florida and Texas A&M in the first round on Friday. The players will tee off in 10-minute increments between 9:10-9:50 a.m. Live results and tee times can be found at Golfstat.com and SECSports.com.

It’s been something of an up-and-down season for the Bulldogs. They have won three tournaments and finished in the top five in eight of  11 events. But Georgia also has come in 10th, 14th and 15th this year. Over the last month, however, the Bulldogs have won once, finished second twice and taken third once.

“We’re playing better right now,” Georgia coach Chris Haack said. “We’ve been more consistent the back half of the spring, so hopefully we’re peaking at the right time. It’s been a weird year. When we’ve been good, we’ve been really good. But we had a couple of tournaments where we didn’t show up. Luckily, the last half of the season, we’ve gotten better and we’ve been competing pretty well against some of the best teams in the country. We know we can compete; we just have to do it on a more consistent basis.”

McCoy currently is rated third in the World Amateur Golf Rankings as well as in the Golfweek/Sagarin and GolfStat polls. He has won each of the Bulldogs’ last three tournaments, becoming the first Georgia player to accomplish that feat. McCoy has four wins overall this season, tying the school record set by Chris Kirk in 2006-07 and matched by Russell Henley in 2009-10.

“We have mixed emotions about the year,” McCoy said. “We wish we had a couple of them back. We weren’t happy with how we played at all ion them. But when we’ve put up the good numbers, a lot of good things have happened for us. We’re getting to the part of the season that really matters and hopefully we can all put it together on the same day.”

The SEC is as strong as ever with three schools ranked in the top 10 and two others in the top 25.

“I think this tournament is as wide open as I’ve ever seen it, so anything can happen,” Haack said. “Our league is really tough, top to bottom, and I don’t know that there’s a clear-cut favorite. I think it’s going to be an exciting championship. It’s anybody’s ballgame and that really shows the strength of our conference.”

The Bulldogs will be wearing the initials “DM” on their caps this week in honor of David Miller, the All-American and All-SEC performer for the Bulldogs who passed away last month at the age of 36.

“David was one of my first signees and he helped us win our first SEC title (in 1998),” Haack said. “We are wearing his initials because he remains in our thoughts and hopefully he can look down and help guide us to another one.”

Georgia has been a dominant force at the SECs, winning a league-best 28 conference titles. Under Haack, the Bulldogs have secured seven SEC titles, including five of the tournaments held at Sea Island. Georgia also boasts 15 SEC medalists, including Haack protégés Bryant Odom (2001), Brendon Todd (2004) and Henley (2010).