Auburn Men's Golf returns to the central time zone after a weekend at the SEC Championship at Sea Island, Ga.
The Tigers finished seventh overall, with senior Cole Moreland finishing tied for 12th individually.
"Overall, it was probably our worst ball-striking week of the year," said Auburn coach Nick Clinard. "In the final round, we played good at times, but couldn't get it going."
Moreland hit a one-over-par 211 over the three-day tournament.
After the first day of play, Auburn was tied for second, falling to sixth on the second day and finishing in seventh.
"We were the first set of tee times off one," Moreland said about the first day. "Everyone played real solid. It was good to start off in second."
Moreland said the wind on the course hurt the team on the second day.
"When I teed off it was blowing probably 20 miles an hour at 9:30 in the morning," Moreland said.
Other Tigers competing in the tournament were sophomore Will McCurdy (+5, 215), redshirt freshman David Zickler (+5, 215), sophomores John Stembridge (+8, 218) and Kyle Kopsick (+12, 222).
"We're young," Clinard said. "We had one freshman, three sophomores in the lineup and one senior."
Moreland, the only senior playing last weekend, said he didn't feel much pressure being the oldest player on the team.
"I did feel a little pressure at the beginning of the year," Moreland said. "But toward the end I was more comfortable with it."
Clinard said the team has a chance to win no matter what lineup is playing.
"If we go about our business and play the way we're capable of playing we have a good chance to win every time we tee it up," Clinard said.
The No. 18 University of Georgia won the team tournament for the second year in a row, and Georgia's Russell Henley took the individual title.
The next time Auburn will compete will be in the NCAA Southeast Regional May 20-22.
"This year we'll be between a five and seven seed in regionals," Moreland said. "It's always good to go as a team and play for a national championship."
Not all conference tournaments have been played yet, so the regionals have not yet been announced.
"May 9 is the conference call," Moreland said. "So we'll find out where we're getting shipped to."
The closest regional to Auburn is in Atlanta at Capital City Club.
Clinard said the team will take the month off to focus on resting and some portions of its game.
"We've been going pretty hard since the beginning of March," Clinard said. "Right now it's rest, number two is academics and three is we need to work really hard on our short game."
Clinard, in his first year on The Plains, said the team accomplished many goals he set in the beginning of the year.
"We wanted to win a tournament, we wanted to be ranked in the top 35 in the country, and we also wanted to qualify for the post season," Clinard said. "I think we've met all our goals so far, and now we have new goals for the rest of the year."
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