By Cameron Jourdan
Special to The Tuscaloosa News
STILLWATER, Okla. – Jay Seawell had a simple message for his team Friday night.
He wanted them to bounce back
Seawell, the Alabama men’s golf coach, got that bounce-back effort from his team, as the Crimson Tide set the single-round team scoring record at Karsten Creek Golf Club, firing a 9-under par 279 on Saturday during the second round of the men’s NCAA championships.
“I’m proud of our guys,” Seawell said. “That’s kind of our slogan, bounce back. We had a nice conversation last night. We had a lot of golf to play and we talk about bounce back. We challenged them to bounce back, and I’m really proud of how the whole team did. Everyone did a good job today.”
Although three golfers had to finish their first round Saturday morning, it didn’t affect their performance in the afternoon. Lee Hodges carded seven birdies and sits at 3-under. Alabama moved up 16 spots on the leaderboard and sits in third place heading to Sunday’s third round of stroke play.
Davis Riley carded a 3-under 69 to move to 1-under for the tournament. Jonathan Hardee hit five birdies and five bogeys to finish at even par for the day and 1-over after two rounds.
“I thought I played well,” Hodges said. “I played patient out there. It’s a really hard golf course. I made some good putts and hit a lot of fairways.”
After Sunday’s round, 15 teams will be cut.
