FAYETTEVILLE -- The Arkansas men will be shooting for their first conference championship in 20 years while the Razorbacks women will look for their first title when the SEC Golf Championships tee off today.
The men will compete at Sea Island Golf Club at St. Simon Island, Ga., for the 15th consecutive year, while the women will play at Greystone Golf and Country Club in Hoover, Ala., for the third consecutive year. Both tournaments will consist of three rounds of stroke play.
SEC Championships
MEN’S TOURNAMENT
WHEN Today-Sunday
WHERE Sea Island Golf Club, St. Simon Island, Ga.
COURSE DATA Par 70, 6,898 yards
ARKANSAS LINEUP (stroke average) Taylor Moore (72.1), Kolton Crawford (72.5), Alvaro Ortiz (73.5), Nicolas Echavarria (73.9), Zach Coats (74.8)
TEAM RANKINGS (Golfweek top 30) No. 4 Vanderbilt, No. 6 Auburn, No. 8 South Carolina, No. 9 LSU, No. 21 Alabama, No. 28 Arkansas, No. 29 Georgia
NOTEWORTHY Arkansas is the only SEC team to finish in the top six at at the conference championships each of the past six years. … Arkansas juniors Taylor Moore and Kolton Crawford are making their third appearances at the SEC Championships, while junior Nicolas Echavarria and sophomore Zach Coats are playing for the second time and freshman Alvaro Ortiz is making his debut. … Alabama won last year’s title with a 34-under, 16 strokes better than second-place LSU.
WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT
WHEN Today-Sunday
WHERE Greystone Golf and Country Club, Hoover, Ala.
COURSE DATA Par 72, 6,308 yards
ARKANSAS LINEUP (stroke average) Gabriela Lopez (71.89), Regina Plasencia (72.63), Samantha Marks (73.16), Summar Roachell (75.53), Alana Uriell (75.83)
TEAM RANKINGS (Golfweek top 30) 5. South Carolina, 6. LSU, 8. Arkansas, 9. Mississippi State, 13. Tennessee, 16. Texas A&M, 18. Vanderbilt, 21. Florida, 26. Alabama, 29. Auburn
NOTEWORTHY Arkansas placed third here last year, with Lopez finishing second. … Arkansas’ Regina Plasencia won medalist honors at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic in Athens, Ga. two weeks ago. … Former Razorback Stacy Lewis won SECs in 2005 and 2008. … Live stats available at golfstat.com.
The Razorback women, led by juniors Gabriela Lopez and Regina Plasencia, are ranked No. 8 by Golfweek and are one of four SEC teams in the top 10.
"Our goal is to come here and win a championship," Coach Shauna Estes-Taylor said. "Our girls are focused to go out and do something we've never done before."
The Arkansas men struggled in the fall, but the Razorbacks had a strong spring with four top-five finishes capped by last week's third-place finish at the Aggie Invitational, four strokes behind Oklahoma and one behind Texas Tech.
Junior Kolton Crawford finished second at even par, two shots behind Cal's K.K. Limbhasut in College Station, Texas. Arkansas freshman Alvaro Ortiz tied for 13th while junior Taylor Moore, the team stroke average leader, was tied for 21st.
"We had another good tournament last week at the Aggie and had a chance to win the tournament," Arkansas Coach Brad McMakin said. "We've got a lot of momentum going into the conference championships."
Moore and Crawford have played in the SEC Championships twice before, so their experience should come in to play.
"It's best to tee off early in the morning when the wind's not up yet," Moore said.
"We've been playing a lot better," Crawford said. "We always play our best in the postseason, it seems like, so I don't see why we couldn't win."
Weather conditions could impact both championships. The Sea Island course typically has wind as a factor, and rain is in the forecast for parts of the weekend at the women's tournament.
"Hopefully we'll go out and make some shots and be in position on Sunday to have a chance," Estes-Taylor said.
Sports on 04/17/2015