Fourth-Ranked Tide Golf Opens

The first Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches’ poll of the spring season was released on Wednesday with Jay Seawell’s Alabama Crimson Tide ranked fourth nationally.

The Crimson Tide concluded the 2008 fall season with a second-place finish at the Isleworth-UCF Collegiate Invitational and a No. 3 ranking. The first poll of 2009 was released after many collegiate teams around the country kicked off their spring schedule last weekend.

Alabama opens its spring slate this Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009, at the John Hayt Intercollegiate at the Sawgrass Country Club in Jacksonville, Fla.

Alabama received 463 points in the poll and one first-place vote. Georgia remains atop the rankings after edging the Crimson Tide at the Isleworth-UCF Collegiate Invitational in late October. The Bulldogs received 525 points and nine of the 22 first-place votes.

Oklahoma State is ranked second with 499 points and four first-place votes. Southern California has seven first-place votes, but 492 total points to rank third. Stanford trails Alabama in fifth with 422 points. Illinois garnered the remaining first-place vote and ranks seventh.

Alabama and Georgia leads a contingent of six Southeastern Conference schools in the top 25 with Florida at No. 11 (300), Arkansas at No. 12 (293), South Carolina at No. 13 (255) and Tennessee at No. 14 (244). Auburn and Mississippi are also receiving votes this week.