Jansen Preston Fires 68 as Kentucky Opens SEC Championship

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Steady play with limited mistakes helped Kentucky men’s golf to a 1-over par opening round at the Southeastern Conference Championship on Wednesday, landing the Wildcats in a tie for tenth through 18 holes at Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside Course (par 70, 7005 yards).

The Cats are level with the No. 1 team in the country, Ole Miss, as well as Arkansas with two rounds of stroke play remaining. Auburn leads the 16-team championship at 16-under par, while Texas A&M’s Michael Heidelbaugh is the individual leader after a 9-under score of 61.

Kentucky was one of six teams in the field to have no double-bogeys or worse among their four counting scorers. The five starters combined for 13 birdies, tied for the seventh most in the championship

Jansen Preston, the UK senior captain, carded a 2-under par round of 68 that featured three birdies to just a lone bogey. Preston was the low Wildcat on the day and sits tied for 14th place among 80 players. The Lexington, Kentucky native made his first birdie of the day on No. 4 (par 4, 429 yards) before adding additional birds on No. 13 (par 4, 408 yards) and No. 18 (par 4, 470 yards) to close his day. His lone blemish came on No. 9 (par 4, 452 yards).

Freshman Jacob Settles enjoyed a terrific SEC Championship debut, carding an even-par 70 to put himself in a tie for 30th place. A trio of birdies offset three bogeys to put Settles at even-par, his seventh round of par-or-better this season.

Jack Schoenberger made 16 pars, tied for the second most in the field, on his way to a 1-over card of 71. Consecutive bogeys on No. 9 (par 4, 452 yards) and No. 10 (par 4, 418 yards) were helped by a birdie on No. 12 (par 3, 223 yards) as Schoenberger played himself into a tie for 40th.

Kentucky’s final counting score on day one was from freshman Gavin Clutts who made a team-high four birdies en route to a 2-over round of 72. Clutts, who started his round on the front nine, made birdies on No. 5 (par 4, 409 yards), No. 8 (par 4, 368 yards), No. 11 (par 4, 425 yards) and No. 13 (par 4, 408 yards). The Hazard, Kentucky native is tied for 52nd on the individual leaderboard with 36 holes of stroke play still to go.

Freshmen Jacob Lang finished the day at 5-over par after a round which included birdies on No. 3 (par 3, 204 yards) and No. 14 (par 4, 442 yards).

Round two of the SEC Championship will be played on Thursday. Kentucky will be paired with Ole Miss and Arkansas, starting the day on No. 10 (par 4, 418 yards) from 8:50 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Fans can follow along with live scoring on Golfstat.com.

Leaderboard

T14: Jansen Preston (68)
T30: Jacob Settles (70)
T40: Jack Schoenberger (71) 
T52: Gavin Clutts (72)
T78: Jacob Lang (75)
Bold = Counting score

For the latest on UK Men’s Golf follow the Wildcats on and Instagram @UKmensgolf, and online at ukathletics.com.