ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The Alabama men’s golf team fell to No. 15 Texas A&M, 3-2, on Sunday in the match play semifinals of the 2017 Southeastern Conference Men’s Golf Championship. The No. 6-seeded Crimson Tide advanced to the semis after upsetting No. 3 seed and seventh-ranked LSU, 3-1-1, earlier in the day.
Juniors Jonathan Hardee and Lee Hodges each finished the day with perfect 2-0 marks in the new match play tournament format. Hardee defeated LSU’s Philip Barbaree, 1up, in the early round prior to his 2up triumph over Texas A&M’s Dan Erickson in the afternoon. Hodges was equally as good, capturing a pair of 1up victories over LSU’s Sam Burns and Texas A&M’s Brandon Smith.
Redshirt freshman Josh Sedeno split his two matches on the day. After securing a 1up win in 21 holes over the Tigers’ Eric Ricard, he dropped his match against the Aggies’ Andrew Paysse, 2up. Sophomore Davis Riley finished his morning matchup with LSU’s Brandon Pierce all square, but fell to Chandler Phillips, 3up, in the afternoon. Junior Steven Setterstrom lost his matches against LSU’s Luis Gagne (3up) and Cameron Champ (1up).
This year’s new tournament format featured the top eight teams after 54 holes of stroke play advancing to match play. Both the quarterfinals and semifinals were held on Sunday. Texas A&M will square off against top-seeded Vanderbilt, which knocked off No. 4 seed Florida 3-2 in the semis, in Monday’s championship round.
Alabama will now await its postseason fate. The NCAA Regionals will be announced in early May.
