Texas A&M’s women’s golf team tees off in the 2018 SEC Championship starting on Wednesday, April 16 at Greystone Golf & Country Club. The Aggies are looking for their fourth consecutive top five finish and their second SEC Championship.
The SEC Championship uses a new format this year. Wednesday through Friday, the teams play 54 holes of stroke play on the par 72 / 6,253 yard Legacy Course, to determine an individual champion and cut the field down to eight schools for match play. In a format that mimics the NCAA Championships, teams face off in the quarterfinals and semifinals on Saturday, with the championship match covered on SEC Network on Sunday morning.
The Aggies enter the SEC Championship coming off of a second place finish at the Dale McNamara Invitational, and winning the Bruzzy Challenge in their last two outings. Texas A&M has posted a total of eight top five finishes in 11 tournaments this season, and already ranks in the top 10 in school history with an SEC-leading 364 birdies (sixth all-time at Texas A&M) and six rounds of par-or-better (fourth in A&M history)
The Aggie lineup is led by Maddie Szeryk, who is looking for her fourth straight top 10 finish at the SEC Championship, highlighted by a Runner-Up finish in 2015 as a freshmen, when the Aggies won the event. Szeryk has won her last two events, and has finished 15th-or-better in every tournament this season. Sophomore Courtney Dow, who ranks fourth all-time at Texas A&M with a 73.86 stroke average, is the only other golfer with SEC Championship experience in the Aggie lineup, tying for 36th last season.
Freshman Amber Park and Ariana Saenz are making their debut at the SEC Championship, both having won SEC Freshman Golfer of the Week this season. Park ranks second among SEC freshmen and ninth among freshmen nationally with 81 birdies. Saenz, who earned SEC Freshman of the Week with a fourth place finish at the Bruzzy Challenge, is averaging 75.89 strokes per round over the last month, an improvement of four strokes per round from her previous total.
Junior Chloe Velasco is making her competition debut, after travelling to Hoover as an alternate last year, to round out the Aggie lineup. She posted a season-best t-16th finish in her last outing, the Dale McNamara Invitational.
The Aggies tee off in the first of three stroke play rounds starting at 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, with live scoring available on golfstat.com.
