Feb. 25, 2015

COLUMBIA, S.C. — After winning the Bayou City Collegiate Championship last weekend, the South Carolina men’s golf team jumped to No. 3 in the Golfstat Relative Rakings on Wednesday.

The Gamecocks moved six spots up after being ranked ninth last week. The ranking is Carolina’s highest since being ranked No. 2 in September of 2007.

“Moving up in the rankings is always a good thing, but this team, while very talented, still has a lot of areas that we can improve in,” South Carolina head coach Bill McDonald said. “The next tournament and making adjustments from Houston is our current focus, but obviously it’s nice for the guys to get a little rankings respect. Knowing this group, I doubt being ranked highly will be a distraction.”

The win at the Bayou City Collegiate Championship was the Gamecocks’ third this season and was Carolina’s first to open a spring schedule since winning the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate on Feb. 10, 2004. The Gamecocks have recorded four top-five finishes this season and have finished in the top five in 13 of their last 16 tournaments dating back to last season, including six tournament wins.

Carolina is the highest ranked SEC team in the rankings and one of five league schools in the top 25. LSU comes in at No. 7, followed by No. 11 Vanderbilt, No. 15 Auburn and No. 18 Alabama.

Carolina returns to action on March 9-10 at the Palmetto Intercollegiate. The 54-hole event will be contested at the historic Palmetto Golf Club in Aiken, S.C.

GOLFSTAT RELATIVE RANKINGS
1. Illinois
2. Florida State
3. South Carolina
4. Southern California
5. Georgia Tech
6. Arizona State
7. LSU
8. Texas
9. Baylor
10. Texas Tech
11. Vanderbilt
12. South Florida
13. Wake Forest
14. Stanford
15. Auburn
16. UCLA
17. Oregon
18. Alabama
19. Washington
20. Virginia
21. North Carolina
22. California
23. San Diego State
24. Oklahoma
25. Kennesaw State