Just to be safe, both Georgia and Georgia Tech will be in search of their best golf of the week Sunday in order to prolong their stay at the NCAA Championship in Fayetteville, Ark., for at least one more day. Saturday’s second round left both with little room for error.
Suffering two rounds in the 80s (the highest thrown out for the team score), the Bulldogs finished at 12 over par for the day, a combined 24 over after two days. Freshman Trent Phillips (71) was the only Bulldog under par Saturday.
“We got off to a good start and got a little momentum. Then we kind of got derailed on the backside and that threw us off a little bit,” Georgia head coach Chris Haack said. The four top scorers on his team were even par over on the front side Saturday, and 12 over on the back.
“Good news is we’ve got two more rounds and we just need to come out swinging. This team is focused on what it needs to do. We know how to play this golf course, and I’m confident our best play is still ahead of us,” Haack said.
Tech enjoyed a big rebound by their top player, Luke Schniederjans, and a much better day overall than Friday. Tech finished a combined 5 over Saturday - a 14-stroke improvement from the day before - and was tied with Georgia at 24 over in the team competition. After shooting 79 on Friday, Schniederjans rallied for a second-round 67. Tyler Strafaci shot 70.
Both teams find themselves uncomfortably close to the first cut line, looming on Sunday’s horizon.
After Sunday’s third round of stroke play, only the top 15 teams of the 30-team field will play Monday, with the top eight after that moving on to match play.
Meanwhile, 34 shots ahead of Georgia and Tech, seemingly playing another game and another course than everyone else was top-seeded Oklahoma State. The Cowboys are a combined 10 under through two rounds, boosted Saturday by Matthew Wolff’s 66, which tied the Blessings Golf Club course record. OSU owns the top of the individual leaderboard, with Austin Eckroat at 6 under and Wolff at 5 under.
Individually, at even par after two days, Phillips is the low man among the three Georgia schools playing this week – Georgia Southern also is in the field, in 22nd place at 31 over. Tech’s Strafaci is just behind him at one over.
