PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – The No. 21 Arkansas men’s golf team will begin its 2014 fall schedule in style on Friday, opening play at the eight-team Carmel Cup held at scenic Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Slated No. 21 in the GCAA Coaches Preseason Poll on Thursday and No. 28 by Golfweek earlier in the week, the Razorbacks will take the course from 1:00-1:50 p.m. CT playing alongside No. 13 Oklahoma and TCU. The three-day Carmel Cup is the first collegiate tournament of the entire fall and live stats will be available at www.Golfstat.com or via the Golfstat Live app.
Unlike traditional collegiate tournaments, the 54-hole Carmel Cup format features six players per team with the top five counting scores contributing to each round’s total. Arkansas will sport a lineup that features three returners in juniors Taylor Moore, Nicolas Echavarria and Kolton Crawford who have a combined 71 collegiate tournaments of experience between them. The other half of the Razorbacks’ lineup will be made up of North Texas transfer Gonzalo Rubio along with freshmen Alvaro Ortiz and Emil Soegaard who will all see their first action as a Razorback.
Under the direction of ninth-year head coach Brad McMakin, Arkansas is coming off its third NCAA Championships appearance in the last four years. The Razorbacks won multiple regular season tournaments for the fourth straight year in 2013-14, bringing the program’s win total to 20 under McMakin. With Moore, Echavarria and Crawford in the starting lineup the entire spring, Arkansas won the Gator Invitational, produced its top four tournament scores, placed second at the NCAA Columbia Regional at 28-under par and tied for 18th at the NCAA Championships.
The trio of Moore, Echavarria and Crawford all supplied sub-74 stroke averages as sophomores and combined to be Arkansas’ low-man in six of eight spring events. The trio all built off strong sophomore campaigns this past summer, highlighted by Moore’s co-medalist honors at the 114th U.S. Amateur and Echavarria’s 12-stroke win at the Mexican Amateur.
Of the eight teams in the Carmel Cup, six advanced to the 2014 NCAA Championships held at Prairie Dunes Country Club and all six finished in the top 20.
For more information on Arkansas men’s golf, follow @RazorbackMGolf on Twitter.
@RazorbackMGolf Lineup (First RD Tee Time)
Taylor Moore, Jr. (1:50 p.m.)
Nicolas Echavarria, Jr. (1:40 p.m.)
Kolton Crawford, R-Jr. (1:30 p.m.)
Emil Soegaard, Fr. (1:20 p.m.)
Alvaro Ortiz, Fr. (1:10 p.m.)
Gonzalo Rubio, Jr. (1:00 p.m.)
Carmel Cup Field (GCAA Preseason Ranking)
Arkansas (21)
Georgia (5)
Oklahoma (11)
Oklahoma State (T1)
South Carolina (12)
TCU
Texas Tech (RV)
Vanderbilt (16)