Wildcats Begin Postseason at SEC Championship
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Playing amongst arguably the nation’s best conference, the Kentucky men’s golf team will open action at the Southeastern Conference Championship on Wednesday in a quest for a league crown. Having played in nine regular-season events, the Wildcats will face their biggest challenge to date with all 14 teams ranked among the nation’s top-65 teams.
UK will rely on experience from three players who have appeared at least once in the event during their careers, a freshman who has put together a solid opening campaign and a redshirt freshman who has generated a pair of top-20 finishes this season.
Kentucky enters this week with a No. 52 national ranking and has some work to do to solidify a spot in the NCAA Tournament. There’s no better opportunity to cement yourself in the national picture than to perform well among the SEC’s best.
“The SEC Men’s Golf Championship is the best in all of college golf,” UK head coach Brian Craig said. “It is simply fantastic in every regard from the magnificent Seaside Golf Course to 14 elite teams. This is what we train for all year and we are ready to go.”
The Wildcats are coming off their best collective performance of the season at the Shoal Creek Invitational where they rallied to finish in fourth overall.
Seniors Fred Allen Meyer and Lukas Euler and freshman Cullan Brown powered the Wildcats at Shoal Creek and will headline this week’s conference championship lineup. Meyer finished tied for ninth overall for his second top-10 finish of the spring slate. His tournament was aided by a career-low round of 65 during the second round of play.
Euler tied for 14th, while Brown capped the tournament in a tie for 18th. Euler leads UK’s roster with four top-20 finishes this season and a 71.92 stroke average. Brown has three top-10 finishes during the spring portion of the schedule and owns the record for the lowest round in the Craig era with a 7-under 64 to begin the Mason Rudolph Championship en route to his first career top-10 finish.
Joining the trio in the lineup is senior Max Mehles who narrowly missed on a top-25 finish at last year’s SEC Championship. Mehles has produced six top-20 finishes in his 14 career starts with the Wildcats. Junior Matt Liston who has started all nine tournaments for the Wildcats will make his SEC Championship debut, while redshirt freshman Zach Norris will be UK’s sixth man and can see action this week as well. Norris’ tie for 12th at the Seminole Intercollegiate in February led the team and marked a career best for the McKee, Kentucky, native.
The SEC Championship will be played for the 19th time at St. Simon’s Island on the Seaside Course which is rated as one of the top-50 courses in the country.
This year’s format will feature a 54-hole stroke play, with an individual tournament crown being awarded on Friday. The top eight teams will stick around for match play beginning on Saturday. Two finalists will be determined for a head-to-head match-play showdown for the conference’s champion on Sunday.
Lukas Euler: Euler is Kentucky’s most seasoned veteran with 36 career starts, six career top-10 finishes, 18 career top-20 finishes and 52 career rounds of par or better. He has produced a career-low 71.92 stroke average this season with a team-high 15 rounds of par or lower. His best finish of the season came in runner-up fashion at the General Hackler Championship where he also shot a career-low round of 67 to begin the week. Euler’s senior season was highlighted by qualifying for two professional events. He began the season making an appearance at the KLM Open on the European Tour after winning a playoff at the Dutch Amateur this summer and then in February he qualified for the Genesis Open after winning the Genesis Open Collegiate Showcase. He shot a 4-under 67 to win the event by two strokes to receive an exemption for the PGA event. He will make his third appearance in the SEC Championship on Wednesday. A season ago, he was UK’s top finisher with a tie for 16th at 1-over par.
Cullan Brown: After missing the fall slate as he recovered from an injury, Brown has appeared in all six spring events making five starts. He has finished among the top 20 in three of his last four events, including a tie for fifth at the Mason Rudolph Championship. He has eight par or better rounds and owns a 72.22 stroke average. Brown’s 206 combined score and round of 64 during the opening day of play at the Mason Rudolph are both spring lows for the Wildcats this season. He will make his SEC Championship debut this week.
Fred Allen Meyer: Meyer will make the third start of his career at the SEC Championship with his best finish coming during his sophomore season’s finish of 33rd. The Nicholasville, Kentucky, native is playing at a career-low 73.11 stroke average. He’s made 31 career starts and has five career top-10 finishes, with two of them coming this season. He’s produced 11 rounds of par or better as a senior and has 32 for his career. His round of 65 at the Shoal Creek Invitational was one shot off matching a Craig-era record. He has played in 34 career events and 100 rounds of collegiate golf, including starting all nine events this season.
Max Mehles: Mehles finished in a tie for 26th in his first SEC Championship a season ago and has appeared in all nine events this season for the Wildcats. He’s averaging a career-low 73.22 stroke average as a senior with three top-20 finishes and 10 par or better rounds. He tied for 16th in three events this season the Seminole Intercollegiate, and in back-to-back tournaments at the Schenkel Invitational and the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate. During his two-year career with the Wildcats, he’s logged 23 par or lower rounds and six top-20 finishes. He’s made 14 career starts.
Matt Liston: Liston has started all nine events for the Wildcats this season and owns a career-low 73.81 stroke average. He’s generated seven par or better rounds. He tied for 27th the team’s second tournament of the season at The Grove and placed in a tie for 24th at the Schenkel with a season-low three-round total of 217. He will make his SEC Championship debut this week.
Zach Norris: Norris will suit up in the lineup for the first time at the SEC Championship for Kentucky this week. He’s logged a pair of starts during his redshirt freshman campaign, including producing a team-best finish of 12th at the Seminole Invitational in the spring’s opening event. He has six rounds of par or lower and a career-low score of 214. That mark was good for 2-under par for the event in Tallahassee, Florida.
The Tournament Setup
Teams: No. 4 Vanderbilt, No. 11 LSU, No. 12 Auburn, No. 13 South Carolina, No. 16 Georgia, No. 22 Alabama, No. 26 Texas A&M, No. 35 Tennessee, No. 37 Arkansas, No. 40 Florida, No. 52 Kentucky, No. 54 Ole Miss, No. 55 Mississippi State, No. 64 Missouri
Course Details: This marks the 19th year for the SEC Championship to be contested on the Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside Course. The SEC has conducted its annual championship on St. Simons Island since 2001. Since 1927, the Sea Island Golf Club has enjoyed a legacy as one of America’s premier golf clubs.
Rated No. 1 in the U.S. among the “World’s 50 Best Golf Hotels” by Golf Digest Index, Sea Island Golf Club offers three exceptional 18-hole championship courses. The Seaside Course, home to the PGA TOUR’s McGladrey Classic, is a links course graced by majestic ocean vistas in the tradition of St. Andrews.
Originally designed in 1929 by famed architects Harry S. Colt and Charles Alison, the Seaside Course was updated in 1999 by Tom Fazio – earning it a prominent place on Golf Digest’s list of “Top 100 Courses in the United States.”
Format: Three-day, 54-hole event stroke play. Count top four scores each day. Match play for top eight teams beginning on Saturday. Final two play head-to-head in match play on Sunday.
Live Look: Live stats are available via golfstat.com.
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s golf team, follow @UKMensGolf on Twitter and on the web at UKathletics.com.
