The No. 16 Arkansas Razorbacks will have their work cut out today to reach the match play portion of the SEC men’s golf championships at St. Simons Island, Ga.
The Razorbacks tailed off sharply after a strong start and fired a 5 over 285 on Thursday to fall to 11th place at the par 70 Sea Island Golf Club.
Arkansas is at 14 over through two rounds, three shots out of the top eight. The field will be reduced to eight teams after today’s round and seeded for three rounds of match play.
No. 11 LSU shot a tournament-best 4 under on Thursday to improve to 3 under for the tourney, two shots ahead of first-round leader No. 4 Vanderbilt.
No. 6 Alabama is in third place at 3 over, followed by Ole Miss (+34), No. 9 Auburn (+6), No. 19 Kentucky (+9), Tennessee (+10) and No. 7 Florida (+11).
No. 2 Texas A&M and Georgia are tied for ninth at 13 over.
The Razorbacks were again led by sophomore William Buhl, who shot 2 under and is alone in sixth place at 2 under for the tournament, three strokes behind leader Cecil Wegener of Ole Miss, who had a 5 under 65 on Thursday.
Arkansas had 11 birdies on the back nine, where they started the day hot, but carded two birdies and 12 bogeys on the front nine.
Sophomore Tyson Reeder birdied four of five holes in the early going and was at 3 under before posting a quadruple bogey 8 on No. 16 and finishing the day at 2 over. He’s tied for 38th at 5 over.
Sophomore Mason Overstreet played the first eight holes in even par, but wound up at 4 over for the day and 5 over for the tourney, tied with Reeder.
Luis Garza played most of the day under par before finishing 1 over. The sophomore is tied for 44th at 6 over. Senior Alvaro Ortiz is at 9 over for the tournament, alone in 60th place.