Georgia Tech Golf Set for Watersound Invitational – Men’s Golf — Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

THE FLATS – Continuing a busy month of February to begin its spring golf season, Georgia Tech’s 12^th-ranked golf team travels to the Florida panhandle this weekend to defend its 2022 title in the Watersound Invitational in Panama City. The victory was one of four tournaments won by the Yellow Jackets in 2021-22.

After closing the fall season ranked No. 10 in the Golfstat rankings and No. 12 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index, head coach Bruce Heppler has six Yellow Jackets competing in an 11-team field that includes seven teams in the Golfstat top 50, five of those in the top 25, including top-ranked Vanderbilt. Tee times begin at 9 a.m. Sunday and Monday at the Shark’s Tooth Golf Club, with the final round Tuesday starting at 7:30 a.m.

The event is part of a busy February in which the Jackets play three events, finishing at the Southern Highlands Collegiate in Las Vegas before the month is out. The first event, the Amer Ari Intercollegiate two weeks ago, was canceled due to high winds, and the Yellow Jackets wound up playing a single match against No. 20 Texas to salvage the week in Hawai’i. The Longhorns prevailed, 4-1-1.

TEAM UPDATE – The Watersound Invitational becomes Georgia Tech’s first stroke-play competition in the wake of the cancellation of the Amer Ari Intercollegiate. Head coach Bruce Heppler’s squad finished the fall season No. 10 in Golfstat and No. 12 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index despite not winning a fall event for the first time since 2016. The Yellow Jackets, however, posted a pair of runner-up finishes at the Inverness Intercollegiate and its home Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational, tied for fourth at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate and 12^th at the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational.

Heppler will send out the same starting lineup that traveled to Hawai’i, including All-American Christo Lamprecht and fifth-year senior Connor Howe, who were the only Yellow Jackets to be a part of the starting five for each of the four fall tournaments.

Lamprecht, a 6-8 junior from South Africa who reached match play at the U.S. Amateur in August, earned his first collegiate victory at the Inverness Intercollegiate and tied for 10^th at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate for his top performances of the fall. Howe, from Ogden, Utah, tied for third at the Maui Jim and 14^th at Inverness for his two best performances, and added a tie for 20^th at the Golf Club of Georgia.

Also competing are freshman Hiroshi Tai of Singapore, a…