News & Notes About The Bulldogs

Georgia's men's golf team fielded two lineups that placed second and sixth on Monday in the Southern Intercollegiates at Athens Country Club.

The Bulldogs' A team of senior Zach Healy, junior Jack Larkin, sophomores Trevor Phillips and Spencer Ralston, and freshman Davis Thompson posted a score of 8-over-584, while the B team of juniors Matthew Beringer and David Mackey, sophomore Will Chandler, and freshmen John Hilliard Catanzaro and Bo Sikes accounted for a 19-over 595.

Team honors went to Arkansas at 9-under 567, 17 shots clear of the Bulldogs and Kennesaw State.

"We got off to a slow start early because of the cold and the wind and the rain, all of the conditions in the morning, but we stayed patient and knew we had another good round in front of us in the afternoon," Georgia head coach Chris Haack said, "We had it going pretty good in the second round. We just stayed patient and kept playing hard, and that's all you can ask for. One of the things we want to do when we tee it up is try to win, at least get ourselves in the hunt. Today, we got rolling pretty good and thought, 'If we can get on a streak here and make some putts, we have a chance to win.' Our mindset is to always go out there and win. We never looked at the scoreboard, so we had no idea how anyone else was doing, but I really liked our attitude up there today. And I like the fact they just never gave up. That'll give us good momentum and confidence going into the next tournament."

Ralston paced the Bulldogs as he finished sixth at even-par 144, three behind Arkansas co-medalists Alvaro Ortiz and Luis Garza. Healy and Catanzaro came in 10th at 1-over 145, followed by Thompson in 13th at 2-over 146, Mackey in 16th at 3-over 147, Phillips at 5-over 149, Chandler at 6-over 150, Beringer and Larkin at 10-over 154, and Sikes at 14-over 158.

The Bulldogs will return to action Sunday through Tuesday in the Linger Longer Invitational at Great Waters Golf Club in Greensboro.

• Bubba Watson, Kevin Kisner, Harris English, Chris Kirk, Hudson Swafford and Brian Harman will be in action this week in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard.

Bulldogs To Host Southern Intercollegiates Monday

The Georgia men’s golf team will return to action on Monday as it hosts the 36-hole Southern Intercollegiate Championships at Athens Country Club.

Play will begin with shotgun starts at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. There is no cost for admission. Live scoring will be available on Golfstat.com.

Georgia will field two five-man lineups that will begin on Nos. 7 and 8. Georgia’s first lineup will consist of senior Zach Healy, junior Jack Larkin Jr., sophomores Trevor Phillips and Spencer Ralston, and freshman Davis Thompson. The Bulldogs’ second lineup will be manned by juniors Matthew Beringer and David Mackey, sophomore Will Chandler, and freshmen John Hilliard Catanzaro and Bo Sikes. Junior Tye Waller, who is recovering from an injury, will serve as the second squad’s honorary captain.

Ralston and Phillips have appeared in every event this year and lead the Bulldogs with scoring averages of 70.95 and 72.52, respectively. Thompson, who has missed only one tournament this season, is third at 72.78. Sikes will be making his collegiate debut.

“We’re really looking forward to Monday,” Georgia head coach Chris Haack said. “It’s a great team experience having all 11 of our players basically out there at the same time, kind of like one of our practices or qualifying rounds. The added benefit is that they’ll be under tournament conditions, so we’ll see how they respond. This is a chance to compete with each other and other teams on a course we’ve seen a lot. We’re getting close to crunch time with this team, so it’s another chance to see what we’ve got.”

Joining the Bulldogs will be Arkansas, Charleston Southern, Chattanooga, Florida State, Francis Marion, Gardner-Webb, High Point, Iowa, Kennesaw State, Lipscomb, Nicholls State, Savannah State, USC Upstate, Western Carolina, Wofford and Youngstown State.

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. The current reboot took place in 2015. 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. The medalist’s name is engraved on the Stegeman Memorial Golf Trophy and is on display at Athens Country Club.

• Chris Kirk, Harris English and Hudson Swafford will be in the Valspar Championship this weekend.

• Joey Garber, Lee McCoy and Sepp Straka are slated to play in the Web.com Tour's El Bosque Mexico Championship. • Scott Parel is in the field for the Toshiba Classic on the Champions Tour.

Bulldogs Finish Second In Wexford Intercollegiate

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. --- The Georgia men’s golf team finished in second place by just one stroke on Tuesday in the 13th annual Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate.

In the final round on Tuesday, the Bulldogs recorded a 1-under 287 on the par-72, 6,913-yard Wexford Plantation layout. Georgia wound up at 10-under 854, one shot shy of TCU’s 853. Georgia and TCU were the only teams under par in the tournament.

Freshman Davis Thompson and sophomore Spencer Ralston finished second and third, respectively, individually for the Bulldogs. Thompson paced Georgia with a 3-under 69 and Ralston signed for a 1-under 71 in the third round. Thompson set his career standards with an 8-under 208 and the runner-up finish. He also notched his personal-best loop of 5-under 67 on Monday. Ralston landed at 6-under 210 for his fourth top-10 this season and the seventh of his career. Medalist honors went to TCU’s Stefano Mazzoli at 10-under 206.

Senior Zach Healy finished 13th at 2-over 218, including a 4-over 76 on Tuesday. Junior David Mackey wound up a personal-best 14th at 3-over 219 after signing for an even-par 72 in the second round. Sophomore Trevor Phillips closed with a 3-over 75 to end up at 9-over 225.

“Our expectation in each tournament is to win, so we’re disappointed that did not happen, but we played well and we can leave here satisfied with the effort,” Georgia head coach Chris Haack said. “I’m pleased with the way the guys performed the last couple of days and, for that matter, this spring. We’re gaining some momentum and picking up some confidence as we head into the most critical part of our schedule.”

The Bulldogs will return to action Monday, March 12, in the Southern Intercollegiates at Athens Country Club. The 36-hole event will be the Bulldogs’ only appearance in Athens this season.

• Kevin Kisner, Russell Henley, Bubba Watson and Brian Harman will be in action this week in the WGC Mexico Championship.

Bulldogs To Play In Wexford Plantation Inercollegiate

The Bulldogs will return to action Monday and Tuesday in the 13th annual Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate on Hilton Head Island, S.C. Georgia will be joined by Akron, Charleston Southern, Cleveland State, Davidson, Dartmouth, Dayton, Francis Marion, Furman, Gardner-Webb, High Point, Memphis, Mercer, Presbyterian, Radford, TCU, USC-Aiken and Wofford. The Bulldogs' lineup will be determined following qualifying on Friday.

• A reminder that Haack will be inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in Macon on Saturday. Georgia women's golf standout Terri Moody Hancock also will be inducted. She is the daughter of Griffin Moody and sister of Griff Moody, each of whom played for and captained the Bulldogs. The other members of the Class of 2018 are Champ Bailey, Arthur Blank, Tom Cousins, Tracy Rocker, Angelo Taylor and Kenny "Sky" Walker.

• The Honda Classic this week features Russell Henley, Chris Kirk, Harris English, Keith Mitchell, Hudson Swafford, Brian Harman and Kevin Kisner.

Bulldogs To Open Spring In Puerto Rico

The Georgia men's golf team will open the spring portion of its schedule next week at the 26th Puerto Rico Classic.

The Puerto Rico Classic will take place Sunday through Tuesday at the Rio Mar Beach and Spa Resort's River Course, a par-72 track covering 6,945 yards. The 54-hole event begins Sunday with a shotgun start at 8 a.m.

Joining the Bulldogs for the tournament will be Alabama, Georgia Tech, Oklahoma, Clemson, Kentucky, Marquette, North Carolina State, Northwestern, Purdue, Middle Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Maryland, East Carolina, and UNC Greensboro.

"Every year it's a great field, it's a great tournament, and you have to play well to win," said Coach Chris Haack. "This year will be no different. There are a lot of good teams down there. We just have to go down there and see if we can make it happen."

The Bulldogs will travel senior Zach Healy, junior David Mackey, sophomores Trevor Phillips and Spencer Ralston, and freshman Davis Thompson. Junior Jack Larkin Jr. will compete in the individual tournament.

"I think we have a really good five going down there," said Mackey. "We're all starting to get our games back. I think our chemistry is the best right now that it's ever been this year. Everyone's excited and I think we're going to play well. I'm looking forward to it."

• A reminder that Haack will be inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in Macon on Saturday, Feb. 24. Tickets and sponsorships for the ceremony are available by calling (478) 752-1585. Georgia women's golf standout Terri Moody Hancock also will be inducted. She is the daughter of Griffin Moody and sister of Griff Moody, each of whom played for and captained the Bulldogs. The other members of the Class of 2018 are Champ Bailey, Arthur Blank, Tom Cousins, Tracy Rocker, Angelo Taylor and Kenny "Sky" Walker.

• Bubba Watson and Harris English are in the field for the Genesis Open in California.

• Scott Parel is playing in the Champions Tour's Chubb Classic.

5 Bulldogs To Play At Pebble Beach

• Five Bulldogs will be in action this week in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am -- Kevin Kisner, Chris Kirk, Russell Henley, Bubba Watson and Keith Mitchell.

• The Web.com Tour's stop is the Club Colombia Championship and will feature Erik Compton, Sepp Straka, Mookie DeMoss, Lee McCoy and Joey Garber. Our friends at PGATour.com caught up with Garber recently for a Q&A.

• Scott Parel is in the field for the Champions Tour's Boca Raton Championship.

• A reminder that Coach Chris Haack will be inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in Macon on Saturday, Feb. 24. Tickets and sponsorships for the ceremony are available by calling (478) 752-1585. Georgia women's golf standout Terri Moody Hancock also will be inducted. She is the daughter of Griffin Moody and sister of Griff Moody, each of whom played for and captained the Bulldogs. The other members of the Class of 2018 are Champ Bailey, Arthur Blank, Tom Cousins, Tracy Rocker, Angelo Taylor and Kenny "Sky" Walker.

• Haack's Bulldogs will kick off the 2018 portion of their schedule Feb. 18-20 in the Puerto Rico Classic.

• Based on 150,000 ratings and reviews from 92,000 golfers, GolfAdvisor.com has released its top 50 United States golf courses list, with the UGA Golf Course coming in at No. 12. That rating is a testament to the dedication and hard work put in by Matt Peterson, Scott Griffith, John Crumbley, Clint Udell, Micky Wilson, John Inglett and all of their staffers.

5 Bulldogs Not Wasting Their Time

• Five Bulldogs will be in action this week in the Waste Management Phoenix Open -- Russell Henley, Hudson Swafford, Harris English, Bubba Watson and Chris Kirk.

• Joey Garber, Lee McCoy, Sepp Straka and Erik Compton will tee it up in the Web.com Tour's Panama Championship.

• A reminder that Coach Chris Haack will be inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in Macon on Saturday, Feb. 24. Tickets and sponsorships for the ceremony are available by calling (478) 752-1585. Georgia women's golf standout Terri Moody Hancock also will be inducted. She is the daughter of Griffin Moody and sister of Griff Moody, each of whom played for and captained the Bulldogs. The other members of the Class of 2018 are Champ Bailey, Arthur Blank, Tom Cousins, Tracy Rocker, Angelo Taylor and Kenny "Sky" Walker.

• Haack's Bulldogs will kick off the 2018 portion of their schedule Feb. 18-20 in the Puerto Rico Classic.