By outreach@cw.ua.edu (Elliott Propes)
Hawaii greeted the No. 15 Alabama men’s golf team with open arms. The Crimson Tide had the pleasure of traveling to the tropical Island to finish the fall golf season at the Makai Invitational. Alabama took advantage of the opportunity and ended the fall season with back-to-back wins after winning the invitational by five strokes.
“It feels really good to finish the fall season with two straight wins,” coach Jay Seawell said. “We have been able to beat really good teams during the stretch.”
Alabama won the Jerry Pate intercollegiate last month over now top-ten ranked No. 4 Florida State, No. 1 Auburn and No. 10 Florida. This week Alabama was back and forth on the leaderboard with No. 3 Wake Forest, but outlasted the Demon Deacons.
“We had a great day today with Wake Forest. I think they are one of the top two or three teams in the country and that’s because they are really good,” Seawell said. “I wanted to see how our guys would handle that and I am proud of the way they handled today. To win this tournament, while holding onto the lead and competing against a really good team back and forth all day long is a great way to end the fall.”
Not to mention, Alabama shot an 824, 40-under par for the weekend. That score places sixth best for a 54-hole tournament ever in the Crimson Tide record books, and tied for fourth in score vs. par. Every player on the team contributed to the record placing score. All five of the golfers finished among the top-10 in the 17-team field. Senior Tom Lovelady had a career-best finish of second overall. He carded a career-low 54-hole score of 13-under par, 203. He has now recorded sub-70 scores in five of his last six rounds. Sophomore Jonathan Hardee finished tied for fourth overall with a three-round total of 9-under 207, both career-best results. Junior Robby Shelton and sophomore Steven Setterstrom tied for sixth overall with an 8-under par 208, while freshman Davis Riley tied for ninth with a 7-under 209.
Alabama hopes to carry some of the momentum to the spring, when the team travels to another tropical island, Puerto Rico, in February.
“The last two tournaments we’ve battled three of the top four teams and have been able to beat them in pressure-packed days, so I think it really does help our confidence,” Seawell said. “We are still pretty young and days like today do things to help you build as we get ready for the championship time of both the SEC and NCAAs. We look forward to enjoying this one on the long flight home and we will get ready to go back to workouts next week.”
Source:: The Crimson White Sports
