No. 17 Gamecocks Finish Regular Season at Southern Intercollegiate

COLUMBIA, S.C. – No. 17 South Carolina is set to finish the regular season with a one-day, 36-hole event on Monday at the Southern Intercollegiate. It’s a shotgun start for the field at 8:30 a.m. ET with a unique format, as every team will play with themselves beginning on the same hole. The Gamecocks will start on hole 12 at Athens Country Club.
 
It’s the same steady lineup for Carolina of seniors Scott Stevens, Ryan Stachler and Will Miles along with juniors Caleb Proveaux and Jamie Wilson.
 
It’s last four outings dating back to the historic win at Palmetto Golf Club on March 12, South Carolina is 97-under par with two victories, a third-place finish in a loaded field at the Valspar Collegiate Invitational on March 19 and a runner-up finish at the Augusta Haskins Award Invitational on April 7. During the stretch, the Gamecocks have recorded a team scoring average of 277.08 with 228 birdies and 12 eagles.
 
Wilson is coming off consecutive top-fives in which he’s posted five rounds in the 60s, including a career-low round of 66 during the second round in Augusta. The Mount Plesant, S.C., native, was named SEC Co-Golfer of the Week on Wednesday.

ABOUT THE COURSE
Athens Country Club features an 18-hole, Donald Ross-designed golf course and a 9-hole North Course. The Ross Course and the club’s North Course provide excitement and challenge for all playing abilities. The club has stayed true to Mr. Ross’ design over the years, and is revered because of its history. The North Course was designed by fledgling golf course designer and UGA graduate, George Cobb, who later went on to design the Par 3 Course at Augusta National Golf Club.

TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The SICs were the brainchild of Georgia athletics director Herman Stegeman and Athens Country Club founder Lon Dudley in 1934. The first tournament was held in 1935 and ran annually through 1942. It resumed in 1946 and was held through 1965, then was relaunched in 1975 and ran through 1990. The current reboot took place in 2015. Past individual medalists include Wake Forest’s Arnold Palmer in 1950, Oklahoma State’s Bob Tway in 1979 and Centenary’s Hal Sutton in 1980. The medalist’s name is engraved on the Stegeman Memorial Golf Trophy and is on display at Athens Country Club year-round.

TOURNAMENT FIELD
South Carolina and No. 14 Georgia are the only Power Five schools in the 17-team field this week.  This will be the first time the Gamecocks and Bulldogs have met this spring. Georgia finished three shots in front of Carolina at the Ka’anapali Collegiate Classic back in early November.

Here’s the full field and where the teams stack up in the latest Golfstat Team Rankings:
 
Central Arkansas (214)
Francis Marion (232)
Gardner-Webb (165)
Georgia A (14)
Georgia B
Kennesaw State (82)  
Nicholls State (200)
North Alabama (not eligible for rankings)
North Georgia (82*)
Savannah State (263)
South Carolina (17)
Troy (167)
UNCW (102)
USC-Upstate (120)
Western Carolina (254)
Western Kentucky (89)
Youngstown State (257)
 
*NCAA Division II Ranking

MCDONALD’S 23
Gamecock head coach Bill McDonald is the winningest coach by tournament victories in school history with 23 wins, two of which have come during the 2018-19 season. McDonald broke the previous record of nine held by Puggy Blackmon (1995-2007) with Carolina’s win at the Carpet Capital Collegiate in September 2014. His squad captured a school-record five wins during the 2014-15 season.
  
UP NEXT
Carolina has a week off before getting ready for the beginning of postseason play at the 2019 SEC Championship (April 24-28), which will be held at Sea Island Golf Club (St. Simons Island, Ga.) for the 19^th time. The conference tournament will be the same format as the past two seasons with 54-hole stroke play followed by match play between the top-eight teams in stroke play. Click here for more information.
 
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