Tide Men's Golf Team Opens 2003-04 Season Saturday
9/10/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
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TUSCALOOSA - When the 2002-03 golf season opened last September, Jay Seawell had only been on the job as the University of Alabama head men's golf coach a scant matter of weeks. He barely had time to meet his golfers much less practice and evaluate talent as he began his first year.
One year later, Seawell, who despite that first year status still coached the Crimson Tide into NCAA postseason play last May, is familiar with the talent he has on his roster. And he's still jumping straight into a fire of sorts. Whereas most coaches like to ease into the heat of competition, Seawell and the Crimson Tide are opening the 2003-04 season this weekend in a tournament that features some of the country's best teams, including top-ranked Clemson.
Alabama is among 18 teams competing in the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate at the Ridges in Johnson City, Tenn. Fifteen of the 18 teams are ranked among Golfweek's 2003-04 preseason top 30. Play begins Saturday, September 13 with the first two rounds and the third and final round will be played on Sunday.
"It's always an exciting time when you open the season because you're getting a fresh start. I'm looking forward to seeing what the guys can do," said Seawell. "The Ridges is a great tournament. It's got a great field. It has a good history of crowning champions and future champions. So it will be a great test for our team. We're going against the best early, and that's what's going to be fun, seeing how we react against the best teams."
The field Alabama is competing against includes No. 1 ranked Clemson, No. 3 Florida, No. 5 Georgia, No. 10 Georgia Tech, Auburn, host East Tennessee State, Illinois, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Southern California, South Carolina, Tennessee, TCU, Tulsa, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
Competing for Alabama are five veteran players, 2003 U.S. Amateur participant Daniel Creel, 2002 World Amateur participant Lars Brovold, 2002 U.S. Amateur participant Clint Provost, Lance Walker and Sean Szerencsits.
"The defending NCAA Champions, Clemson, are going to be there, Georgia, Florida, N.C. State, Wake Forest," said Seawell, "so we are going to get a chance to see the best teams in the country early. That part of it is exciting because you get to see immediately where you stand against the best. As a coach, that's the way I like to do it. I like tough schedules
because it does give you an idea of where you stack up and what you need to do to work on to get to that standard."
Brovold, a senior, was Alabama's low stroke leader last season with a 72.61 stroke average, playing in all 12 tournaments for the season. He set the school's low round record with a 63 shot last fall in a tournament hosted by Vanderbilt.
"I expect this to be a breakout year for Lars," said Seawell. "He's an All-American caliber player. He played that way for two thirds of the year last year, and I think this year will be a great year for him. I think he'll break out to the national scene. I'm also very impressed with Daniel and how he's come through during the summer. He's really gotten his game back. I think going to the U.S. Amateur gave him some confidence. He came back here and won our qualifier. So those are the two players who I'm looking forward to watching play and seeing how they respond this week."
Alabama's season begins this weekend and, with a winter break from November until late January, continues, hopefully, through the NCAA Championships in June. Alabama hosts two events, the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate at Old Overton October 13-14 and the Conrad Rehling Alabama Spring Invitational at the Capstone Club March 12-14.
