No. 12 Ole Miss is heading to Sea Island, Ga., this week for the SEC Championship Wednesday-Sunday at Sea Island Golf Club.
It’s the 25th year the conference has held its championship at the Georgia coast venue, and the Rebs are looking to extend their postseason streak to nine straight years.
All 16 SEC teams will compete in three rounds of stroke play to open the tournament. Those rounds determine individual honors and bracket seeding.
The top eight teams advance to match play on Saturday and Sunday, with the championship match airing live on SEC Network at 7 a.m. Sunday. Saturday’s semifinals will be available on SEC Network+.
The Rebels bring a strong lineup into the week. Senior Tom Fischer leads the squad in scoring average (69.96), rounds under par (19) and birdies (109).
He’s ranked No. 13 in the PGA TOUR U Rankings and No. 34 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.
Fischer enters the tournament riding six straight rounds under par dating back to April 3, including a win at the Mossy Oak Collegiate.
Senior Cameron Tankersley sits at No. 15 in PGA TOUR U and No. 35 in the WAGR.
He picked up his first collegiate win earlier this season at The Invitational at the Honors Course in Chattanooga, where Ole Miss swept both the individual and team titles.
He leads the team with nine rounds in the 60s.
Cohen Trolio, also a senior, is ranked No. 23 in PGA TOUR U and No. 63 in the WAGR. He’s posted three top-10 finishes this season, including a third-place result to open the year in Knoxville.
Junior Collins Trolio rounds out the experienced core. He’s made nine starts this season, owns a 72.96 scoring average and picked up a top-10 finish at the Thomas Sharkey Individual.
Freshman Daniel Tolf adds another dimension to the lineup.
The Gothenburg, Sweden, native won at the Watersound Invitational earlier this spring, posting a 54-hole score of 201 (-9) to set a new career low. He also set a new career-low 18-hole score by shooting back-to-back 65s at that event.
Tolf became the first Ole Miss freshman in nearly 10 years to win at least a share of an individual title.
The last freshman to do it was Braden Thornberry, who won at the FAU Slomin Autism Invite in March 2016.
The field at Sea Island is loaded. It includes No. 1 Auburn, No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Florida, No. 5 Arkansas and No. 8 LSU, among others.
Trolio Brothers Bring a Unique Dynamic
One of the more interesting storylines this week involves Cohen and Collins Trolio, brothers competing together for a second straight season.
Cohen reflected on what it means to share the experience.
“We have a really cool relationship and have been around each other and our best friends,” Cohen said. “I missed him when I was gone and we’d talk on the phone most nights, but it’s cool to be able to come to a school and play together and learn from other people.”
Collins echoed that sentiment.
“It could not have worked out any better because I never saw us getting the chance to play collegiately together,” Collins said. “I learned to play the game by watching Cohen so it’s cool now that we get to compete against each other and play on the same team.”
The trio of Fischer, Tankersley and Cohen Trolio have combined to play in 124 collegiate events across 364 rounds. All three rank inside the top 65 of the WAGR and the top 25 of PGA TOUR U.
Ole Miss enters SEC play off a sweep of the Mossy Oak Collegiate, their final regular-season event.
It’s the second straight year the Rebels took both team and individual honors in their regular-season finale.
The team also swept at The Invitational at the Honors Course earlier this year, making it two team sweeps and eight top-five finishes on the season.
Rebels coach Chris Malloy is in his 12th year leading the program. The Rebs finished as NCAA semifinalists last spring and set multiple program records that season, including the most team rounds under par in a single year.
