Wildcats Set to Begin Play in NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky is set to tee off at the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional on Monday at the Ol’ Colony Golf Complex in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The Wildcats are making their ninth appearance in the NCAA Tournament under head coach Brian Craig with this year’s selection. UK is one of 81 total teams across the six regional sites vying for a spot in the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore. The top five teams from all six regionals will make up the field at the NCAA Championships next week. 

What coach Brian Craig is saying:

“I love this team and what they stand for. They really are their brother’s keepers. We are ready to play and just need to focus on what we can control. This field is stacked, but we can compete with anyone when we are sharp. We will give our very best effort this week, that I can guarantee.”

About the lineup:

This weekend’s tournament will feature a five-player team lineup in senior David Snyder, junior Stephen Stallings, sophomore Tyler “Chip” McDaniel and Cooper Musselman and freshman Lukas Euler. Euler is making his first-ever postseason start, while the four upperclassmen comprised UK’s top-four finishers at the Southeastern Conference Championships in April.

Kentucky is coming off a seventh-place finish at the 2016 SEC Championship held at St. Simons Island, Ga. McDaniel earned runner-up status with a 1-under par, 209, marking his sixth top-five finish of the season. He earned All-SEC status en route to leading UK to its best finish at the SEC Championship since 2012. 

Musselman and Stallings tied for 25th and both earned the best finishes of their careers at the league championship. Musselman led the team in three of the five spring tournaments, highlighted by a top-10 finish at the Schenkel Invitational. Stallings owns the distinction of having the team’s lowest round of the year when he shot a career-low 65 in the second round of the Schenkel Invitational. 

Snyder joins McDaniel and Stallings as the only players to suit up for all nine of UK’s tournaments this season. He owns a 74.12 stroke average during his final season. He is making his second-ever start in an NCAA Tournament after helping lead UK to a fourth-place finish at the Raleigh Regional in 2014. 

The Tournament Field:

The 13-team regional features four other teams from the SEC, including the host Crimson Tide, Georgia, Auburn and South Carolina. The remainder of the field includes UNLV, Kansas, Charleston, Lipscomb, Charleston Southern, Colorado, Harvard and Southern Illinois. 

SEC Champions and No. 5 Georgia headline the field that includes four top-25 rated squads. Kentucky comes into the tournament as the No. 32-ranked team. 

The top five team finishers from the Tuscaloosa Regional will move on to the NCAA Championship in Eugene, Ore., slated to begin May 27. 

The Course: 

The Ol’ Colony Golf Complex has been voted as the “Best Public Course in Alabama” by Golf Digest and one of the top-50 courses in the country by Golf Week. The 18-hole course opened in Dec. 2000 and was designed by professional golfer, Jerry Pate. 

Players will tee off holes No. 1 and 10 beginning at 8 a.m. on Monday. The teams will play 18 holes Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday’s tee times will begin at 8 a.m., while Wednesday’s round will begin at 7:30 a.m. 

Fans can follow along with live scoring here. 

For the latest on the Kentucky men’s golf team, follow @UKMensGolf on Twitter and on the web at UKathletics.com. 

Ol’ Colony Golf Complex

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

May 16-18

Par: 72

Yardage: 7,514

UK Lineup: 

1 – Chip McDaniel

2 – Cooper Musselman

3 – Stephen Stallings

4 – David Snyder

5 – Lukas Euler