Georgia golfers are major force on PGA Tour

What would Bobby Jones think? If the late golf legend, who played for Georgia Tech, could come back to the Augusta National Golf Club he founded, he would find an infestation of Bulldogs.

There’s a University of Georgia diploma hanging in the office of club Chairman Billy Payne, who played football for the Bulldogs.

Patrons can be heard routinely barking amid the pines as a left-hander with a pink-shafted driver cuts the corner of the iconic par-5 13th hole to within wedge range. Bubba Watson won two of the past three green jackets, hollering “Go, Dawgs!” to his fans.

When the 79th Masters Tour-nament tees off Thursday, six former University of Georgia golfers will be in the field – seven if you count the one who played one season in Athens before transferring to Augusta State University.

“We had four (in the Masters) last year, and I thought that was a lot,” said UGA golf coach Chris Haack, who recruited every one of those ex-Bulldogs to college from 1999-2007.

Watson, who debuted in 2008 along with Milton (Fla.) High School mates Boo Weekley and Heath Slocum, keeps finding himself part of school reunions at Augusta.

“The Masters, it’s not easy getting in there,” Watson said. “To get that many guys who went to Georgia on tour who have the ability to make the Masters, that’s pretty wild.”

One of those six, Brian Harman, of Savannah, Ga., is not surprised.

“We’ve all been doing this since we were 14, and this is all we basically ever wanted to do,” he said of the Masters. “This is where we were all going to end up eventually.”

Georgia has become the dominant school in professional golf. The 2013-14 PGA Tour season was so thoroughly painted red and black that it was sometimes referred to as the “UGA Tour.”

Georgia golfers accounted for eight wins among six players – two each from Watson and Chris Kirk and additional victories by Russell Henley, Harris English, Brendon Todd and Harman. Patrick Reed, who transferred out after one season, won two tournaments, meaning players originally recruited and signed by Haack won 10 of the 45 official events (22.2 percent).

“It was really pretty remarkable,” Haack said. “I mean, to have one or two guys win in a year is pretty unbelievable. To have six guys win? It’s goofy.”

The numbers are indeed noticeable. Bulldogs compiled 47 top-10 finishes among eight golfers ranked inside the top 100 on tour. In the seasonlong FedEx Cup points race, five Georgia players ranked among the top 21 through the regular season and four made the field of 30 in the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake.

It proved to be the richest collection from one school in the history of the PGA Tour, with Georgia grads accumulating a record $25.9 million – more than double second-place Oklahoma State ($12.8 million) in the annual Rivals Cup race. And that doesn’t include the added $4.89 million in FedEx Cup bonus money the nine players in the top 150 accumulated.

With all of the talent coming out of Georgia in a span of eight years, there is a certain element of feeding off one another. When one succeeds, it spurs the others to catch up.

“I think they just give me motivation that I can go out there and do it,” Todd said after winning the Byron Nelson Classic.

The Georgia crop compares favorably with the loaded Wake Forest and Florida teams of the late 1970s through the ’80s and the accomplished Houston contingent from the 1980s. Given time to grow up, perhaps these Bulldogs can pile up majors in the fashion of those former collegiate titans.

They’re certainly creating opportunities for themselves. Last summer, eight Georgia players teed it up in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst – a number eclipsed only by Wake Forest’s nine in 1981. Eight more Bulldogs competed in the Open Championship at Hoylake, and seven at the PGA Championship.

Wake Forest is the only program that put together tour seasons comparable to Georgia’s last year. In 1988, nine Demon Deacons earned a total of $2.71 million, with seven victories from Curtis Strange, Lanny Wadkins and Jay Haas. Considering purses are 10 times larger today, the adjusted cash value would eclipse Georgia’s record.

Stanford alum Tiger Woods collected nine wins by himself in 2006, but he was largely a one-man show representing the Cardinal.

As of now, Watson is the lone Georgia golfer to win a major. At No. 2 in the world and owning two green jackets, Watson is the most prominent face of Georgia’s golf program – ironic considering Watson rode the bench behind a stacked handful of All-Americans his senior season.

“Bubba and I were like flukes who came out of there, because Bubba never made an impact in school, either,” said Erik Compton, who left Georgia with two years of eligibility left. “Bubba became ... the poster boy for all of us.”

Until Watson, the Bulldogs were rank-and-file compared to the players its rival, Georgia Tech. Larry Mize, David Duval and Stewart Cink won professional majors, while the best Georgia had to show were major amateur titles from Vinny Giles (U.S. and British) and Bryden MacPherson (British).

“It just put another feather in the cap that we didn’t have and helped define our program a little bit more,” Haack said. “We’ve always had successful guys out on tour but when you get a guy who actually wins a major, that’s something so few people do. It became a huge source of pride for our program.”

The players motivate one another, and their success inspires new generations of Bulldogs to follow suit.

“I see them and think ‘Why not me?’ ” said Lee McCoy, a junior All-American and Walker Cup candidate. “ ‘I’m here now doing exactly what they did. Why can’t that be me in three years?’ Just shows you that it’s possible and you’re in the right place to get it done.”

That’s the same thinking that worked for Watson once.

“Some of those guys from Georgia that have won said, ‘Hey, Bubba won. We’re recruited by the same coach; if Bubba can do it, I can do it, too,’ ” Watson said. “It just inspires. It was the same thing with Boo and Heath from Milton. I saw them get on tour and win and thought, ‘I played with these guys; I can do that.’ You feed off of that.”