Men's Golf
Gavin Clutts Cards Career Best on Day Two at SEC Championship

Gavin Clutts Cards Career Best on Day Two at SEC Championship

by Greg Welsh

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Kentucky men’s golf freshman Gavin Clutts turned in the best score of his college career on Thursday at the Southeastern Conference Championship, carding a 1-under par effort of 69 to lead the Wildcats in round two of stroke play at Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside Course (par 70, 7005 yards).

Kentucky shot 295 (+15) as a team in round two and is in 16th place with one round of stroke play remaining. UK’s two-day total of 576 (+16) places them one-shot behind Missouri in 15th place and 21 shots out of match play position. Following Friday’s third round, the top eight teams on the leaderboard will advance into match play, from which a conference champion will eventually be crowned.

Auburn and LSU currently share the team lead at 26-under par while LSU’s Jay Mendell holds the individual lead at 9-under.

Clutts, who hails from Hazard, Kentucky, made four birdies for the second-consecutive day, and limited his mistakes to just three bogeys to polish off the lowest 18-hole score of his young college career. The freshman started his day on the back nine by recording four straight threes on the scorecard, including a trio of birdies on No. 10 (par 4, 418 yards), No. 11 (par 4, 425 yards) and No. 13 (par 4, 408 yards). After three bogeys on his homeward half, Clutts added a final birdie on No. 8 (par 4, 368 yards) to get back under-par for the day. He stands tied for 36th in the 80-player field. Clutts’ eight birdies on the week are the most for a Wildcat and tied for the 12th most by any player.

UK’s Jack Schoenberger and Jansen Preston matched each other with 4-over par second rounds of 74, combining to make five total birdies between them. Preston is now tied for 42nd at 2-over par for the Championship, while Schoenberger is three shots back at 5-over total and in a tie for 65th.

The freshmen tandem of Jacob Settles and Jacob Lang shared the distinction of being the Wildcats’ final counting score, each signing for 78 (+8) on Thursday.

Kentucky will begin the third round with tee times on Friday morning from 9:40 – 10 a.m. off both No. 1 (par 4, 417 yards) and No. 10 (par 4, 418 yards). Live scoring is available on Golfstat.com.

Leaderboard
T36: Gavin Clutts (72-69)
T42: Jansen Preston (68-74)
T65: Jack Schoenberger (71-74)
78: Jacob Settles (70-78)
80: Jacob Lang (75-78)
Bold = Counting score

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

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