Georgia Tech Golf Heads to Las Vegas – Men’s Golf — Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

THE FLATS – Finishing off a busy month of February to begin its spring golf season, Georgia Tech’s 8^th-ranked golf team travels West once again to compete in the Southern Highlands Collegiate in Las Vegas, Nev. The tournament begins Sunday and runs through Tuesday, 18 holes each day.

Coming off a runner-up finish at the Watersound Invitational last week, head coach Bruce Heppler has six Yellow Jackets competing in a 15-team field that includes nine teams in the Golfstat top 25. The Yellow Jackets rallied from an eight-shot deficit to nearly overtake No. 1 Vanderbilt in the final round at the Watersound event, but came up one stroke short.

Tee times begin at 12 p.m. Eastern time each day, with groups teeing off both No. 1 and No. 10 tees.

The Southern Highlands Collegiate is Tech’s third tournament this month. The first event, the Amer Ari Intercollegiate Feb. 6-8, 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 – Tech’s performance at the Watersound Invitational bumped the Yellow Jackets from No. 12 to No. 8 in the latest Golfstat rankings. Head coach Bruce Heppler’s squad has not yet won an event on 2022-23, but has been a runner-up three times, including the Inverness Intercollegiate and its home Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational in the fall.

Heppler will send out the same starting lineup that competed in Hawai’i and Panama City Beach, including All-American Christo Lamprecht and fifth-year senior Connor Howe, who are the only Yellow Jackets to be a part of the starting five for each event this year.

Lamprecht, a 6-8 junior from South Africa who reached match play at the U.S. Amateur in August, fell short of winning his second tournament this year at the Watersound Invitational, taking runner-up honors. He earned his first collegiate victory at the Inverness Intercollegiate in the fall. Howe, from Ogden, Utah, tied for third at the Maui Jim and 14^th at Inverness for his two best performances so far, and added a tie for 20^th at the Golf Club of Georgia.

Also competing are freshman Hiroshi Tai of Singapore, a two-time winner in the fall (Maui Jim individual event, Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate) before tying for ninth last week; senior Ross Steelman (Columbia, Mo.), who tied for seventh place at the Watersound event and tied for fifth at the Golf Club of Georgia; and senior Bartley…