MADISON, Miss. - South Alabama men's golf closed its season in a fourth-place finish after 54-holes of stroke play resulted in making the cut as one of four teams to advance to a semifinal match play appearance on Thursday at Annandale Golf Club.

The tournament began on Monday with clear skies which remained true through Tuesday's round on moving day. The final round of stroke play saw the Jaguars outside the cutline to advance to the semifinal amid a long afternoon of lightning delays in Madison. Tournament play would be postponed due to darkness and resumed when Hugo Thyr had one hole left to play at 7:00 a.m. Thursday morning.

Thyr held the weight of the team on his shoulders, as at this point in the tournament, the Jaguars were one stroke ahead of James Madison inside the cutline holding the four spot. The senior needed to make par to advance his team to the semifinal.

With the Jaguar team supporting him in the early morning, The two-time Sun Belt tournament champion had a 10 foot putt for par he would bury to advance the team.

No. 4 seeded South Alabama faced off with No. 1 Coastal Carolina in the semifinal. Coastal would advance to the final round over the Jaguars after it took three of the five individual matches to conclude South Alabama's season.


TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Event (host): Sun Belt Conference Championship
Dates: April 27-30 (Monday-Thursday)
Course: Annandale Golf Club (Par 72, 7,157 yds)


SOUTH ALABAMA SCORES
T6. Hugo Thyr, 71-68-71 (-6); T15. Filip Svendsen, 72-76-69 (+1); T17. Samir Davidov, 74-71-73 (+2); T18. Josh Hill 72-74-73 (+3); T47. Tim Kretschmann, 74-75-77 (+10).


TEE SHOTS

• The Jaguars shattered its previous season-long team stroke average program record of 289.03 by nearly five strokes, with an average this season of 283.69.
• In the fall at the Trinity Forest Invitational in Dallas, Texas, the team fired the lowest tournament total team score in program history of 833 (-31).
• The Jaguars led the tournament field in eagles made at the SBC Championship with four.
• For the first time in program history, a Jaguar golfer individual stroke average landed in the 60's. Hugo Thyr's individual stroke average this season was 69.83 across 29 rounds, beating Gareth Mayben's previous program record (71.33, 2003-04) by nearly two strokes. Thyr was one of three golfers in the Sun Belt Conference to bring in a stroke average in the 60's into the Sun Belt Conference Championship in 2026. In his career, Thyr won the SBC Championship twice. He is one of two Sun Belt golfers in history to do so (Alan Schulte, ODU, 1984-85). The senior carded an unbelievable 20/29 rounds under-par, and 15 of 29 in the 60's to finalize his historic season.

QUOTED
Head Coach Ben Hannan
"We have a lot to be proud of this week. With the depth and the strength of the league this year, we had to play some very good golf to get to the match play bracket.  With all the weather issues and changing of course conditions, the guys battled hard and it came down to a clutch 10 foot putt for par on the last hole from Hugo with the rest of the team watching on at 7:15 a.m. this morning.

All credit to Coastal Carolina,  They had four out of five guys shoot under par in their respective matches and it was simply too tough to overcome that deficit.

This week caps off a season with multiple program records broken, a team and an individual win along with several individual accomplishments. Again, this group has a lot to be proud of this year."


UP NEXT
The Jaguars await further information for a possible NCAA Regional appearance.


FOLLOW THE JAGS
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1872.

Join the Birdie Club — the men's golf-specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund. All donations to the Birdie Club go directly to support the South Alabama men's golf program. For more information on how you can join, visit jaguarathleticfund.com/birdieclub.