April 20, 2008

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – In the program’s best showing in a decade, No. 10 South Carolina rallied into second place at the SEC Championship at Frederica Golf Club on Sunday. With four players finishing in the top 15 of the individual standings, the Gamecocks shot their tournament-best round of 278 on the final day to move past Georgia and Florida with a 54-hole total of 861 (-3), the lowest SEC Championship score in school history. Sophomore George Bryan IV also moved two places up the individual leaderboard to finish tied for second place, the best SEC Championship showing by a Gamecock since Kyle Thompson finished in the same spot in 1999.

Bryan was steady in the first two rounds, scoring 72 (E) and 71 (-1) to enter Sunday’s final round tied for fourth place, just two shots off the leader, Alabama’s Joseph Sykora. After opening with a birdie on the first hole, the sophomore standout scorched the front nine, adding two more birdies and an eagle on the par-4 sixth to make the turn at three under. Bryan added another birdie on the par-4 10th and played steadily down the stretch to card a 69 (-3) and tie Sykora for second place with a 212 (-4) for the event, the lowest three-round total by a Gamecock since Alex Hamilton turned in a 211 to finish fifth in 2004.

Junior Mark Silvers III turned in a final-round 68 (-4) to rocket from 26th to seventh place, giving the Gamecocks two top-10 players in an SEC Championship for the first time since West Streib and Eirik Johansen took eighth and 10th place, respectively, in 2003. Silvers shot 75 (+3) and 73 (+1) in the first two rounds and played near flawless golf on Sunday, carding five birdies, including three of the four par 5s on the course.

Senior Warren Thomas recorded his best finish at an SEC Championship, taking 12th place behind a final-round 71 (-1). After shooting 72 (E) and 74 (+2) in the first two rounds, he recorded a total of 217 (+1), his best tournament total since shooting a career-best 211 in the 2007 NCAA West Regional. Thomas picked up four birdies in his final round to move up seven places on the leaderboard.

Closing his final SEC Championship with the form that carried him through the spring, senior Mark Anderson rallied up nine places into 15th with a final-round 70 (-2). He recovered from a first-round 77 (+5) to shoot 71 (-1) on Saturday, giving him a total of 218 (+2). Anderson made his move early with three birdies in a four-hole stretch of the front nine. After the back nine derailed his first round, he made the appropriate corrections to score par on all nine of those holes in the second round. He continued that improvement on Sunday, adding a birdie on the par-5 15th to the eight pars down the stretch.

Sophomore Patrick Rada was the lone Gamecock to struggle in the final round, shooting 78 (+6) after turning in 75 (+3) on each of the first two days. He finished the event, the first postseason tournament of his career, in 48th place.

Alabama, ranked No. 1 in the country, won its sixth event of the season and swept the SEC Championship trophies as Michael Thompson, who entered the day tied for fourth, shot 65 on Sunday to win the individual title by four strokes. The Crimson Tide shot a tournament-low 275 in the final round to finish at 853, eight strokes ahead of South Carolina.