Alabama
Mason Rudolph Championship
Alabama Men’s Golf Set to Compete at Mason Rudolph Championship
3/30/2017 10:47:00 AM | Men's Golf
Crimson Tide will play two tournaments in two weeks beginning with this weekend’s event
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama men's golf team will travel to Nashville, Tenn., this weekend to participate in the 2017 Mason Rudolph Championship. The event, which will be the first of consecutive tournaments played on back-to-back weekends to close the regular season, will be played on the par-71, 7,100-yard Vanderbilt Legends Club South Course.
Alabama's lineup for the weekend is led by junior Lee Hodges, who has been playing his best golf of the year as of late. Hodges has three top-10 finishes over his last four events and enters this weekend's tournament having carded below-par scores in 11 of his last 12 rounds. The Ardmore, Tenn., native currently tops the team with a 71.61 per round stroke average and is second with a 0.28 average vs. par.
Two other Crimson Tide golfers also average below 72.00 strokes per round this year in Jonathan Hardee (71.67) and Davis Riley (71.92). Hardee, who has competed in three tournaments this spring since missing the entire fall season with an injury and has been a solid addition to the team, as he leads Alabama in average vs. par (-0.33) in addition to ranking second in stroke average. The Greer, S.C., native has placed among the top 30 in each tournament and six of his nine rounds this spring have been under par.
Meanwhile, Riley is coming off a season-best eighth-place finish at the Tide's previous event, the Linger Longer Invitational, with a season-low tournament total of 6-under par 210. It was his first tournament played this spring after missing the two previous tournaments with an injury.
Redshirt freshman Josh Sedeno and junior Steven Setterstrom will round out Alabama's starting five, while redshirt freshman Alex Green will compete as an individual.
This year's tournament features a 14-team field, which includes a total of nine teams ranked among the top 60 in the nation, according to the latest Golfstat.com team rankings. Along with No. 52 Alabama, the field includes tournament host third-ranked Vanderbilt, No. 6 Florida, No. 21 Duke, No. 26 Missouri, No. 49 Middle Tennessee, No. 52 Iowa, No. 53 Liberty and No. 60 Troy. Also competing this weekend is Ball State, Belmont, East Tennessee State, Miami (Ohio) and Southern Illinois.
The Tide won the team title in 2014 and finished runner-up at the event in 2015. Alabama also claimed the title in 2001.
The three-day, 54-hole tournament format will begin with fixed tee times starting at 8:30 a.m. CT on Friday and Saturday and at 8 a.m. CT Sunday.
Live scoring for this year's tournament can be found at www.Golfstat.com.
Get all the latest information on the team by following @AlabamaMGolf, on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and AlabamaAthletics on Facebook.
Players Mentioned
