With a lot of the country fixated on March Madness, the No. 1 Georgia men’s golf team was busy beating No. 2 Oklahoma State to win the Linger Longer Invitational in Greensboro, Ga., continuing an impressive stretch in which it has won five of its last six tournaments – a feat almost unheard of in collegiate golf.

“Well, Oklahoma State has such a great team and a great program that anytime we go head-to-head with them and can get the better of them, it tells you your team’s going in the right direction,” said coach Chris Haack.

After the first two rounds, the Bulldogs and the Cowboys were tied for first, and the stage was set for the head-to-head battle between the country’s top 2 teams. But the Dogs broke away from the Cowboys in the final round with an even par 288 to secure the two-shot victory.

Sophomore Harris English led Georgia individually with a fourth place finish at 6-under-par 210, finishing just two shots back of medalist Trent Whitekiller of Oklahoma State.

“Harris played very steadily. He actually gave himself some chances to really go deep and possibly win that thing individually but, you know, just a couple glitches here and there. But he played very steady all three rounds, and it was good to see him bounce back after a tough opening day in Las Vegas,” Haack said. “And it’s good to have him back and confident with his game.”

Senior Adam Mitchell finished just one spot back of English on the leaderboard in a tie for fifth at even par 216. Sophomore Russell Henley also notched a top 10 finish with a tie for seventh.

The Bulldogs’ depth was on full display this weekend, as they also had two players – Michael Green and Will Kropp – playing as individuals whose scores do not count for the team score, which was unfortunate for the Dogs as Green finished in the top 10 in a tie for seventh with Henley.

“I played solid this weekend. I played pretty well the first day, but didn’t really play well [Saturday],” Green said.

Despite Green not being in the starting lineup, Haack believes it spells great things for the team down the stretch, but it will not have an effect on the lineup for the final three tournaments.

“Again, it is nice to have that kind of depth and having guys like Michael make the team better because they push these guys day in and day out,” Haack said. “I kind of made the decision going into Las Vegas that I kind of had my starting five finalized, and we are going to go forward with that, but Michael playing well this weekend kind of confirms that if something crazy happens that he’s a guy that you can stick into the lineup and you’re not really going to be hurt … It’s unfortunate that we can’t play six and count five because he’d be a great guy to have in there, and unfortunately, in our game, you can only play five.”

And Green will be ready for his team if they need him.

“It definitely says a lot about our team. I don’t think there are many teams out there that can say if they had someone go out late in the season they’re ready to go, and I think it speaks a lot about coach Haack’s recruiting that we’re that deep,” Green said.