University of Georgia Athletics
Bulldogs Confident In California
May 13, 2015 | Men's Golf
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
ATHENS, Ga. -- Georgia's men's golf team has shown that it can win tournaments. The Bulldogs have won three times since the 2014-15 season began in August, at The Carmel Cup in Pebble Beach, Calif.
The Bulldogs are back in California this week as the No. 6 seed in the San Diego Regional, one of six regional sites for the start of the NCAA Championships.
"We do have some good memories from the last time we were out in California, so hopefully that will help us this week," said Sepp Straka, who will be in Georgia's lineup along with senior Mookie DeMoss, junior Lee McCoy, sophomore Greyson Sigg and freshman Zach Healy.
It has been an up-and-down season for the Bulldogs. Along with the three victories -- the Dogs also won the Puerto Rico Classic in February and the one-day Southern Intercollegiate at Athens Country Club -- Georgia has finished second three times and third once. But Georgia also has finished 10th or worse three times, and at last month's SEC Championship at St. Simons Island, the Dogs' most recent event, Georgia placed seventh.
"Inconsistent is definitely a word you can say," Straka said. "Our highs are as good as anybody in the country's, but our lows are obviously not too great, as you saw in Las Vegas (where Georgia placed 15th in the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters in March).
Sigg described the season as "kind of weird." But the work he and the Bulldogs have put in since their disappointing finish at the SEC Championship has them feeling confident entering Thursday's opening round.
"We've worked real hard the past month or so since the SECs, when we didn't play great down there," he said. ""Everyone's got a good mind-set going into regionals and the NCAAs."
Georgia enters Thursday's 13-team regional at The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., as the sixth seed. It will have to better that to move on to the NCAAs in two weeks at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. Only the top five teams from each regional will advance and have a shot at the national title, which the Bulldogs won in 1999 and 2005.
"We've won some big tournaments, against some really good teams, and we all know how it is going down the stretch," Straka said. "We've all done it. That's definitely going to help us out going into the NCAAs."
This is Georgia's 26th NCAA appearance in 27 years, since the NCAA switched to the current postseason format in 1989. The Bulldogs play in big events all season long, so facing off against some of the nation's best teams isn't anything new. Sigg said Monday that he wasn't feeling any pre-tournament jitters.
"I think we're all just ready to go, honestly," he said.
The Bulldogs have been led this spring by McCoy, who won a school-record three straight tournaments and was named first team All-SEC. His scoring average is 69.55 and he's No. 3 nationally in the GoftStat rankings.
One of the challenges Georgia and the rest of the field will face is The Farms' op annua greens, which are notoriously tricky to putt, especially late in the day when they've grown a bit since the morning's mowing. Straka said the last time the Dogs played a tournament on poa annua greens was back in August, when they won The Carmel Cup.
Another reason for confidence.
John Frierson is a staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Hall of Fame at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. You can follow him on Twitter: @TheFrierson and @ITAHallofFame.
Players Mentioned
