ATHENS — The No. 23-ranked Georgia men’s golf team will compete Monday through Wednesday in the NCAA College Grove (Tenn.) Regional.
The lone way to advance to the NCAA Championships May 26-31 in Sugar Grove, Ill., is to finish fifth or higher in the 13-team Regional at The Grove Club. The Bulldogs are seeded fourth.
“The field is a tough one, but that’s the way it is in all the Regionals,” Georgia head coach Chris Haack said. “We’ve played against just about everyone in the field this year and we know how good they are. But our focus is on Georgia. We know we’ve got to play well in order to survive and advance. That’s our goal. We’ll be aggressive and play as well as we can and do what it takes to move on.”
Joining the Bulldogs and host Middle Tennessee State in the Regional will be Vanderbilt, Texas Tech, Clemson, Missouri, Lipscomb, Kennesaw State, UCF, TCU, Troy, ETSU and Harvard.
The Bulldogs will be paired with Missouri and Lipscomb in the first round on Monday. Tee times are slated for 11-minute increments beginning at 10:20 a.m. and ending at 11:04 a.m. Live scores can be found at Golfstat.com.
Haack will use a lineup of seniors Jaime Lopez Rivarola and Greyson Sigg, sophomore Tye Waller, and freshmen Trevor Phillips and former Gainesville High standout Spencer Ralston in the Regional. Lopez Rivarola, Sigg, Waller and Ralston were in the lineup when the Bulldogs placed fifth in the Franklin American Mortgage Intercollegiate at The Grove in September. Ralston led the Bulldogs as he came in seventh, followed by Sigg in ninth and Waller in 13th.
“It’s a hard golf course,” Haack said, “so we’re fortunate that we got to play it in the fall.”
The Bulldogs were invited to an NCAA Regional for the 22nd straight year and for the 28th time in 29 seasons since the format was introduced in 1988-89. The Bulldogs have advanced from the Regional to the NCAAs 21 times. The Bulldogs have been invited to an NCAA Regional in all 21 of Haack’s seasons and have moved onto the NCAAs in 18 of the previous 20 campaigns. Haack led the Bulldogs to the 1999 and 2005 national titles, to runner-up finishes in 2007 and 2011, and to the “Final Fore” in 2015.
The five other Regional sites are Aldarra Golf Club in Sammamish, Wash.; the University of Texas Club in Austin, Texas; Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif.; the Kampen Course in West Lafayette, Ind.; and the University Club in Baton Rouge, La.
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