ATHENS — The Georgia men’s golf team will open the 2018-19 season this week in The Carmel Cup in Pebble Beach, Calif.
The Bulldogs are slated to play 54 holes Friday through Sunday at Pebble Beach Golf Links. The course has been set up as a par-72 covering 6,828 yards. Georgia's players will tee off in 10-minute increments beginning at 10 a.m. on Friday.
The Bulldogs will use a lineup of redshirt junior Tye Waller, juniors Trevor Phillips and Spencer Ralston, sophomores John Hilliard Catanzaro and Davis Thompson, and freshman Trent Phillips. The tournament format consists of six players with five counting (as opposed to the typical five players with four counting).
Ralston, a Gainesville High graduate, was an All-America and All-SEC player a year ago with a scoring average of 70.86. Trevor Phillips joined Ralston as the lone Bulldogs to play all 12 events as he posted an average of 72.54. Thompson ranked third at 73.03 and Catanzaro was ninth at 76.24. Waller missed all of the 2017-18 campaign due to an injury. Trent Phillips, a highly decorated junior player, will be making his collegiate debut.
Ralston and the Phillips brothers played earlier this month in the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach.
The Phillips brothers will be the first siblings in a Georgia lineup since Sam and Sepp Straka played in the 2013 Bulldog Battle at Mountain Lake and the 2014 Tavistock Collegiate Invitational. Additionally, Sepp was in the lineup and Sam competed as an individual in the 2012 Brickyard Collegiate Championship (which Sam won), the 2015 Southern Intercollegiate and the 2015 Linger Longer Invitational.
Live results will be available at golfstat.com.
Joining the Bulldogs in The Carmel Cup will be Arkansas, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech and Vanderbilt.
“We’re excited about the upcoming year and kicking it off in The Carmel Cup,” said Georgia head coach Chris Haack, who is entering his 23rd season with the Bulldogs. “I think we are going to be a much-improved team this year. We can use these fall tournaments as a chance to build our team chemistry and knock off some rust. We’ve got some experienced players on the roster and a nice infusion of youth. I am looking forward to seeing how we compete and how we develop. The Carmel Cup is a tough test right out of the gate, and that’s going to be good for us.”
Haack's squad will have five fall tournaments. After The Carmel Cup, the Bulldogs will play in the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational Tournament Sept. 30-Oct. 2 in Fort Worth, Texas; the Jack Nicklaus Invitational Oct. 8-9 in Dublin, Ohio; the Jim Rivers Intercollegiate Oxt. 15-16 in Choudrant, La.; and the Ka'anapali Classic Collegiate Invitational Nov. 2-4 in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii.
