ST. SIMON?S ISLAND, Ga. ? The Kentucky men?s golf team shot a 287 (+7) on day one of the 2004 Southeastern Conference Men?s Golf Championships and sit in sixth-place after 18 holes of the tournament. Meanwhile, No. 4 Georgia separated from the rest of the field by firing an SEC record 11-under-par 269 to claim the early lead.

The Wildcats were led by junior John Holmes who carded a par-70 in the first round and currently sits tied for 10th as an individual. Sophomore Matt Kohn and junior Mark Blakefield are not far behind Holmes. Kohn posted a one-over-par 71 (T18th) and Blakefield posted a two-over-par 72 (T20th) to keep Kentucky in contention after the first round.

Alabama golfer, Clint Provost turned in a low-round 65 (-5) and finished the day one stroke ahead of Georgia golfers David Denham and Brendon Todd who posted a pair of four-under-par 66 scores, respectively.

As a team, UGA surpassed the previous tournament record round by six strokes. The previous mark was 275, 5-under-par. The Bulldogs were the only team to shoot under-par in round one as the second-place team, Alabama finished at par-280. Auburn shot a one-over-par 281 to move into third-place and No. 1-ranked Florida and Tennessee rounded out the Top-5 283 (+3) scores.

The second round is set to begin Saturday morning at 8 a.m. with the second round and the championship round will be played on Sunday.

Kentucky Scores

T10 John Holmes 70 Even
T18 Matt Kohn 71 +1
T20 Mark Blakefield 72 +2
T35 Brandon Waldrop 74 +4
T35 Matt Wells 74 +4

Team Standings

1 Georgia 269 -11
2 Alabama 280 Even
3 Auburn 281 +1
T4 Florida 283 +3
T4 Tennessee 283 +3
6 Kentucky 287 +7
7 South Carolina 294 +14
8 Vanderbilt 295 +15
9 Mississippi State 297 +17
10 Louisiana State 298 +18
11 Arkansas 300 +20
12 Ole Miss 302 +22

Top-5 Individual Scores

1 Clint Provost (Alabama) 65 -5
T2 David Denham (Georgia) 66 -4
T2 Brendon Todd (Georgia) 66 -4
T4 Will Claxton (Auburn) 68 -2
T4 Kevin Kisner (Georgia) 68 -2
T4 John-Scott Rattan (Tennessee) 68 -2