PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. – With a birdie on the third playoff hole, Wake Forest’s Alex Fitzpatrick lifted the Demon Deacons to a 3-2 victory in the 2022 Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Golf Championship at Shark’s Tooth Golf Course at Watersound Club. The ACC championship is the 19th for Wake Forest – breaking a tie with Georgia Tech for the most golf titles of any school – and the first since 1989.
Wake Forest also won the women’s golf championship last weekend at The Reserve Golf Course in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, and is just the second school in league history to win both the men’s and women’s titles in the same season. Duke also won both in 2005, 2013 and 2017.
“I’m so happy for these young men,” said Wake Forest head coach Jerry Haas, who is in his 24th season. “Everybody contributed this week, everybody got a point. Our goal was to get into the top four (in stroke play), and Michael Brennan was clutch on 8 and 9 on Saturday. We scratched out three points somehow (Sunday vs. North Carolina). Today it looked like they were going to win, then it looked like we were going to win and it was very fitting that we went extra holes.”
Fitzpatrick grabbed an early lead with a birdie on the first hole and led throughout the match until Georgia Tech freshman Benjamin Reuter tied it up with birdie on the par-5 17th. The two traded pars on No. 18 and headed to the front nine for extra holes. Both players made par on No. 1 and No. 2, but Reuter’s drive on the par-5 third hole was just off the right side, slightly obscuring him from the green. He pulled his approach into the woods left of the green and had to take a drop.
Fitzpatrick’s approach landed just off the back of the green, and he chipped to within two feet. Reuter’s chip slid by the hole and hung onto the back of the green, leaving a lengthy 15-foot par putt. After his putt missed the cup, he conceded the match to Fitzpatrick, who was joined by his teammates for a celebration on the third green.
“It was an incredible day full of ups and downs and lots of nerves,” said Fitzpatrick, a Sheffield, England native. “Just an amazing day and I’m very fortunate to have the people around me, and the University and all the support back home. To be able to get that done for them is amazing.”
Georgia Tech began the…
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