Preview: Pebble Beach Bound

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Entering the season ranked just outside the top 25, the Arkansas men’s golf team will open its fall season for the second straight year at historic Pebble Beach as one of eight teams in the loaded field of the Carmel Cup.

The Razorbacks return all seven players that were part of the starting lineup last spring, while four of the six in this weekend’s lineup took part in last year’s Carmel Cup. Then-redshirt junior Kolton Crawford was the team’s low-man all three rounds, producing the first of his team-best five top 5s on the year.

Unlike traditional collegiate tournaments, the Carmel Cup format features six players per team with the top five counting scores contributing to each round’s total. The 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.

All eight teams in the field are either ranked or receiving votes in the Bushnell Golfweek Preseason Coaches Poll. Arkansas came in at No. 29 in the preseason poll, a year after finishing in the top six at the SEC Championships for the sixth straight season and advancing to NCAA Regionals.

Crawford’s top 5 at the Carmel Cup a year ago was the start of a terrific junior campaign that ended with a spot on the PING All-Central Region squad. Crawford was joined on the All-Region team by classmate Taylor Moore who finished as the 41st and 48th-ranked player by Golfstat and Golfweek, respectively.

#RazorFact
Arkansas’ senior trio of Kolton Crawford, Nicolas Echavarria and Taylor Moore have a combined 296 collegiate rounds played. At least one of the three has finished as the team low-man in 12 of the last 14 tournaments dating back to the spring of 2014.

@RazorbackMGolf Lineup (2014-15 stroke average)
Taylor Moore, Sr. (71.8)
Nicolas Echavarria, Sr. (73.8)
Kolton Crawford, R-Sr. (72.2)
Alvaro Ortiz, So. (73.1)
Zach Coats, R-Jr. (74.3)
Noah Edmondson, Fr.

Note: All six players are part of the lineup with the top five scores each round contributing to the team score.

Carmel Cup Field (Bushnell Golfweek Preseason Coaches Poll)
Arkansas (RV)
Georgia (12)
Ohio State (RV)
Oklahoma (18)
Oklahoma State (16)
TCU (RV)
Texas Tech (RV)
Vanderbilt (10)