Georgia golfers sitting 3rd after 2nd round at NCAA tourney

BRADENTON, FLORIDA — The Georgia men’s golf team kept itself in the heart of contention during the second round of the NCAA Championship on Saturday at Concession Golf Club. 

The Bulldogs fired a 5-over 293 to move to 5-over 581 for the tournament. Georgia stands third, seven shots in back of Southern Cal, four shy of Illinois, and tied with LSU. South Florida and Vanderbilt are tied for fifth at 9-over 585. 

The top 15 teams after Sunday’s action will advance to the final round of stroke play on Monday. Georgia currently sits 13 strokes ahead of the group in the cut-off spot. After Monday’s competition, which will include the individual national champion being crowned, the top eight teams will begin match play on Tuesday. 

“We’re going into the third round in pretty good position,” Georgia coach Chris Haack said. “But we also know we have two more rounds. We’ve got to keep doing the same things we’ve been doing. … We held it together pretty well today. We played really strong up until the last couple of holes. You’ve got to hit it to the right spots and miss it to the right spots and you can’t take any crazy chances out here. We’ve done a pretty good job of doing that and avoiding some of the big pitfalls.” 

Junior Sepp Straka paced the Bulldogs on Saturday as he carded a 2-under 70. Straka made five birdies and three bogeys on the day. Freshman Zach Healy followed at even-par 72, while senior Mookie DeMoss signed for a 2-over 74 and junior Lee McCoy posted a 5-over 77. Sophomore Greyson Sigg had the Bulldogs’ non-counting score of 6-over 78. 

“It was a grind today because it was not playing easy,” DeMoss, the team captain, said. “It was one of those days where we just had to keep fighting. We’re pretty pleased all things considered. We’re all fighting for every shot.” 

Healy is sixth individually at 2-under 142, five shots behind SMU’s Bryson Dechambeau. Straka jumped to 17th at even-par 144, followed by DeMoss at 1-over 145, McCoy at 6-over 150 and Sigg at 9-over 153. 

“I think we’ve all played pretty consistently,” Straka said. “Our approach has been to not worry about the results and just keep playing golf. We don’t want to play defensively. If you get into trouble, take your medicine and move on because you’re not going to go bogey free out here.” 

The Bulldogs will tee off on Sunday in 10-minute increments between 1:10 and 1:50 p.m. alongside Southern Cal and Illinois. Live results can be found at GolfStat.com.