ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. ?The Kentucky men?s golf team will attempt to claim its first Southeastern Conference title when it competes in the SEC Championships, April 16-18, in St. Simons Island, Ga. UK enters the tournament ranked 26th according to the GolfStat NCAA head-to-head standings and 22nd in the latest GolfWeek.com rankings. The tournament will tee off at 8 a.m., Friday morning on the Seaside course at the Sea Island Golf Club.
?Our goal is to win the championship,? Coach Brian Craig said. ?But we will have to play our best event of the year to achieve it. ?
The Wildcats completed the regular season with 10 Top-10 finishes in as many tournaments. UK has not finished below 8th-place in any outing this year. In its final regular season competition, Kentucky shot its second-lowest team total of the year (867) and finished third at the Boilermaker Invitational. The Cats shot a 280 in the second round of the Boilermaker Invitational, which was a season-low round.
Kentucky?s lineup features junior John Holmes (Campbellsville, Ky.), who is one of the top-rated golfers in collegiate golf. Holmes is ranked 11th in the latest GolfWeek.com rankings. He has finished in the Top-10 in eight of 10 tournaments and he has been Kentucky?s top performer in all but one tournament.
UK faired well against SEC competition in the regular season. The Wildcats tallied a 13-8 record against SEC foes and they defeated all SEC teams they faced in the regular season, with the exception of defending conference champion and No. 1-ranked Florida. The Gators claimed seven tournament titles this year and have two golfers, senior Camilo Villegas (Medellin, Colombia) and sophomore Matt Every (Daytona Beach, Fla.), who are semifinalists for the 2004 Ben Hogan Award, which recognizes the nation?s top collegiate golfer.
?I think that we are clearly chasing the Gators as is everyone else in the field,? Craig said. ?We have proven that we can beat everyone except for Florida so far this season. Maybe this will be the week that we all come together and play our best golf.?
In addition to the Cats and Gators, the SEC features several other strong golf programs. No. 4 Georgia and No. 10 South Carolina are strong contenders for the conference title, in addition to No. 19 Arkansas.
