 |
|
Front row, L to R, Greyson Sigg, Zach Healy and Jack Larkin Jr. Back row, L to R, Lee McCoy, Matthew Beringer, Sepp Straka, David Mackey and Jaime Lopez Rivarola.
|
The 12th-ranked Georgia men's golf team will kick off the fall portion of the 2015-16 schedule this weekend as it tries to defend its title in The Carmel Cup in Pebble Beach, Calif.
Coach Chris Haack will open his 20th season in Athens with a lineup of senior Sepp Straka, juniors Jaime Lopez Rivarola and Greyson Sigg, sophomore Zach Healy, redshirt freshman Jack Larkin Jr. and true freshman David Mackey. The tournament format consists of six players with five counting (as opposed to the typical five players with four counting).
Notably absent from the lineup is senior All-American Lee McCoy, who is en route to England to compete for the United States Walker Cup Team. Team USA will meet its amateur counterparts from Great Britain and Ireland Sept. 12-13 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club.
The Bulldogs, who reached the “Final Fore” at the 2015 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 Arkansas, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech and Vanderbilt. Tee times and live scoring can be found at GolfStat.com.
Straka, Sigg, Healy and McCoy are fourth-fifths of the lineup that made a memorable run at last year’s NCAAs, reaching the semifinals despite being seeded 28th out of 30 entering the tournament. The Bulldogs won three events in 2014-15, including The Carmel Cup, and finished in the top 5 in 10 of their 14 tournaments.
McCoy paced Georgia a year ago with the single-season scoring record of 70.08 and earned First-Team All-America and All-SEC honors. Sigg and Healy (an Honorable Mention All-American) followed at 72.81 and 72.82, respectively.
“We’re always excited to get the season under way and getting to do so at Pebble Beach pushes that even higher,” Haack said. “This is one of the most famous facilities in golf and our guys are honored to get to play there. I’m looking forward to seeing how we perform this week. Every team has to create its identity and chemistry and that starts here. We have a mixture of experience and inexperience, so we need our veterans to show the ropes to the new guys.”
The Bulldogs will tee off at 11:10 a.m. on Friday with their counterparts from Vanderbilt, Texas Tech and Oklahoma.
