(UK Athletics photo)
Lyon County grad Cullan Brown was one of three Kentucky Wildcats to tie for ninth place at this week’s Southeastern Conference Golf Championship.
Despite facing 20-25 mph wind gusts and a bunched up field, the Kentucky men’s golf team put together perhaps its most impressive performance of the season during Friday’s final round of stroke play. Kentucky had the third-best team score on the course and finished in a tie for third to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals of match play.
Seniors Lukas Euler and Max Mehles and Brown, a freshman, all hauled in their first career top-10 finishes at the league tournament to lead the way.
Brown endured some turbulence over his first 11 holes, playing at 5-over par. The freshman from Eddyville, Kentucky, birdied the par-four 11th to change the course of his round, however. Over his final eight holes, he played at 3-under par to get to 72 for the day. That included consecutive birdies at the 15th and 16th. A bogey at the 17th did not rattle the first-year player as he calmly chipped in for a birdie at the par-four 18th to cap his round in stylish fashion.
Kentucky earned the fourth seed in the quarterfinals of match play and will take on fifth-seeded Tennessee tomorrow. With Kentucky and Texas A&M tying for third, and Georgia and Tennessee tying for fifth, a tiebreaker determined the seeding. The tiebreaker was based on the cumulative total of non-counting scores for all three rounds of play.
UK and the 22nd-ranked Volunteers will open their quarterfinals match beginning at 7:30 a.m. ET off hole No. 1. The winner of that match will advance to the semifinals on Saturday afternoon, which can be seen live on SEC Network+ beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET. The championship match will take place on Sunday morning and will be televised live on the SEC Network.
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 (Ga.) since 2001.
(Information from UKAthletics.com)
