ST. SIMONS ISLAND — Trevor Phillips fired a 5-under-par 65 on Thursday to highlight Georgia’s showing in the 2018 Southeastern Conference Men’s Golf Championship.
Led by Phillips and Spencer Ralston’s 1-under 69, the Bulldogs landed at 2-over 282 for the day and moved to ninth place at 13-over 573. LSU has the team lead at 557, followed by Vanderbilt (559) and Alabama (563).
The final round of stroke play will take place on Friday. The top eight teams after 54 holes will advance to match play beginning on Saturday. Florida currently holds eighth at 571, but there are five teams, including Georgia, within six shots or less behind the Gators heading into Friday’s round.
“We played better today,” Georgia head coach Chris Haack said. “We put ourselves in position to make it. That was the goal coming into the week, to make it to match play. If we can keep playing like we did today, hopefully good things will happen.”
The Bulldogs opened Thursday’s play on the back nine and Phillips was especially hot. He made birdies on six out of seven holes, including consecutive birdies on Nos. 14-17. His 5-under total matched his career low set earlier this season in the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational and duplicated at the Mason Rudolph Championship.
“Six birdies that close together isn’t something I’ve done very much,” Phillips said. “I just tried to enjoy that and stay in the moment.”
The Bulldogs also posted 4-over 74s from senior Zach Healy and junior Jack Larkin Jr. Freshman Davis Thompson had the Bulldogs’ non-counting score of 7-over 77.
Phillips moved to 13th individually at 1-over 141. He is six shots behind Ole Miss’ Cecil Wegener (135). Ralston moved to 3-over 143, followed by Larkin at 6-over 146, and Healy and Thompson both at 8-over 148.
The Bulldogs will open the third round at 7:30 a.m. Friday and will be paired with Florida and Arkansas. Live scoring and tee times can be found at SECSports.com and Golfstat.com.
