Surratt Captures Individual SEC Crown; Vols Claim No. 1 Match Play Seed

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Freshman Caleb Surratt capped off a dominant week at the SEC Championship Friday, claiming the SEC individual championship after shooting a three-round total of 14-under to cruise past the field by six strokes.
 
Surratt becomes the fifth Vol in program history to win an SEC individual title and first since David Skinns in 2005. He’s also the first freshman to win an SEC individual title since Alabama’s Justin Thomas in 2012.
 
The Indian Trail, North Carolina, native’s 14-under performance is the second best 54-hole score and the lowest ever by a freshman in SEC Championship history. Over the course of stroke play, Surratt led the field in birdies (16), par four scoring (-9) and par five scoring (-5).
 
With his round one 64, round two 68 and final round of a bogey-free 64, Surratt currently has currently tied a program-best of 25 rounds of par or better in a season.

Surratt’s stellar performance led the way for Tennessee to finish atop the leaderboard as a team in stroke play. The Vols shot 8-under on Friday—the best round three score of any team in the field by six strokes—and finished three rounds of stroke play at 14-under to capture the No. 1 seed for the match play portion of the event.

 

The Vols’ 14-under 826 marked the program’s lowest 54-hole score in relation to par at the SEC Championships.

 

Tennessee is set to take on No. 8 seed Mississippi State in Saturday’s quarterfinal round of match play. The winner of that match will advance to the semifinals to face the winner of Vanderbilt and Alabama later on Saturday afternoon.

Individually, Tennessee’s second-highest finisher in stroke play was Jake Hall, who shot 1-over in total, including a round two 6-under 64. The redshirt junior placed tied for 28th.

Laurent Desmarchais bounced back from rounds one and two to shoot a 3-under 67 in round three—closing out stroke play at 2-over and tied for 34th place.

Bryce Lewis gave UT its third round of par or better on Friday after carding an even-par 70 to get to 3-over in stroke play and placing tied for 38th.

Josh Hill gave Tennessee a contributing round three score of 1-over. The freshman shot 4-over and placed tied for 44th.

Individual Leaderboard

1. Caleb Surratt, 64-68-64–196 (-14) 

T28. Jake Hall, 75-64-72–211 (+1) 

T34. Laurent Desmarchais, 72-73-67–212 (+2) 

T38. Bryce Lewis, 71-72-70–213 (+3) 

T44. Josh Hill, 71-72-71–214 (+4)

Team Leaderboard

1. Tennessee, 826 (-14) 

2….