.png&width=32&height=32&type=webp)
The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebel Golfers Head To SEC Championships
4/12/2005 | Men's Golf
April 12, 2005
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss men's golf team will head to St. Simons Island, Ga., this weekend to compete for the SEC Championship, looking to improve upon the team's 12th-place SEC finish at last year's tournament.
This year's competition will be held at the par 70, 6,898-yard Seaside Course of the Sea Island Golf Club. Ten of the 12 SEC schools are ranked in Golfweek's most recent Top 50, including Ole Miss at No. 50.
"Our team has prepared very hard for this tournament. The course at Sea Island presents some special challenges that we don't see all year. The greens are faster than anything we will see. There are also greens that slope off on the sides, and any missed shot will funnel down well off the greens. Any recovery shots will be a `bump-and-run' type shot that we don't normally play. We will practice very hard at the site to familiarize ourselves with these shots," said Ole Miss head coach Ernest Ross.
This year's Rebel squad has already produced much-improved results from last year's team. The team's round stroke average of 292.8 is over four strokes lower than last year's 296.9.
Ole Miss claimed its first tournament title since 1999 in its opening tourney of the fall, the Raising Cane Classic in Hattiesburg. The team added a second victory in the first tournament of the spring, the All-South Collegiate Invitational in Alachua, Fla.
The Rebels also boast one of the top golfers in the conference, and maybe in the country, in senior Jordan Dempsey. He leads the SEC with a 71.21 stroke average, 15 rounds under par and nine top-10 tournament finishes. The Jacksonville, Fla. native tied for first at the All-South Collegiate this February and is currently ranked No. 29 in the nation in the Golfweek/Sagarin performance index.
Dempsey will be joined in the Rebel lineup by sophomore Brice Bailey, sophomore Kyle Ellis, senior Lucas Boyd and sophomore Callum Macaulay. Highlights from this group include Ellis' tie for first at the Raising Cane Classic, Macaulay's tie for fifth at the Mason Rudolph Championships and a total of 16 rounds of par or better by the four golfers.
With the success so far in 2004-05, it is near certain the Rebel squad will improve upon last year's 12th-place SEC showing. The team will find out its NCAA Regional placing in early May.
"We have a lot riding on this tournament," Ross added. "But as a player you can't let the pressure of the situation make you play any differently."
Ole Miss will tee off Friday morning in the first round of the three-day, 54-hole affair.
