The first taste of inter-conference action wasn’t kind to Missouri men’s golf.

Coming off their first win of the season last week at the Chicago Highlands invitational, the Tigers had momentum heading into the SEC Fall Preview, which took place earlier this week in Birmingham, Alabama. Unfortunately for Missouri, they were unable to build on their previous outing, following up their best performance of the season with their worst. 

The tournament’s first two days consisted of three rounds of match play between all 14 SEC schools. Missouri finished 12th of the 14 teams competing, shooting 2-over par with 854 strokes (286-282-292). This marked the first time in the new season that the Tigers were unable to score under par as a team. Missouri was one of three squads who finished over par, along with Kentucky and South Carolina. 

The 12th place performance set Missouri up for one round of head-to-head competition against the 11th place Georgia Bulldogs on Wednesday. The Tigers seemed to be in control of the matchup, with four of their five competitors holding a lead on the back 9. Unfortunately for Missouri, only two of the four leads were sustained, as Georgia came back to defeat the Tigers 3-2. 

Leading the Tigers in match play for the first time this season was fifth year Charlie Crockett. Crockett shot 1-under par with 212 strokes (71-71-70), finding himself level with two other competitors in 31st place. He was paired up with Georgia graduate student Ben Van Wyk for round three, who he defeated by 6 holes. 

Senior Jack Lundin (69-69-75) and sophomore Alfons Bondesson (72-71-70) both finished even with 213 strokes in match play. Lundin was 4-under par after his first two rounds, but went over par in the third round for the first time this season to finish at par. This ended a streak of 11 consecutive rounds at or below par to open the season. Lundin and Bondesson took on Georgia junior Buck Brumlow and graduate student Connor Creasy, respectively. Lundin fell Brumlow by 1 hole, while Bondesson took home a 3 hole victory. 

Junior Dagbjartur Sigurbrandsson and sophomore Virgilio Paz were the lone Tigers to finish over par, with Sigurbrandsson shooting  8-over and Paz going 10-over. This put them in 63rd and 67th place after three rounds. They were matched up with Georgia sophomore Carter Loflin and senior Caleb Manuel, who were able to earn victories over both Tigers. 

Missouri will finish the fall portion of their season on October 9th and 10th when they travel to Wilmington, North Carolina to take part in The Williams Cup.

Edited by Quentin Corpuel | qcorpuel@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Grace Knight