Salem, S.C. – Connor Howe and Hiroshi Tai set the tone with twin 6-under-par 66 scores Wednesday, and 11th-ranked Georgia Tech shattered a pair of school 54-hole scoring records after posting a 21-under-par round of 267 Wednesday to win the NCAA Salem Regional.
After setting a program record for 18-hole scoring in an NCAA post-season round Tuesday (266, -22), the No. 2-seed Yellow Jackets nearly beat that record Wednesday. Tech came up one stroke short of duplicating the 18-hole mark, but instead established a team 54-hole scoring record for an NCAA regional at 53-under-par 811. The Jackets won the Salem Regional by eight shots over Arkansas after starting the day seven shots behind the Razorbacks.
Tech’s 54-hole total of 811 at The Cliffs at Keowee Falls was the fourth-lowest score in program history for any tournament, and the 53-under-par mark was its third-best ever. Those scores easily surpassed the previous marks for the Yellow Jackets in any NCAA regional. (Side note: It also beat by one the score Tech shot on the same golf course in the 2019 Clemson Invitational, the last time the Jackets competed in a tournament at The Cliffs).
All five Yellow Jackets finished among the top 18 individuals, with Howe and Christo Lamprecht tying for third place at 14-under-par 202, Ross Steelman tied for 11th at 10-under-par 206, Bartley Forrester tied for 14th at 9-under-par 207, and Tai tied for 18th at 8-under-par 208.
Tech won an NCAA regional for the second year in a row after tying for top honors last year in Columbus, Ohio, and captured its seventh all-time regional title. The Jackets advance to compete in the NCAA Championship finals, which are set for May 26-31 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Wednesday highlights from Connor Howe
TECH LINEUP – Tai and Forrester, the first two Georgia Tech players out Wednesday, set the tone for the Yellow Jackets by putting up three birdies each in their first five holes. They continued to play steady golf the remainder of the round, each making only one bogey, and shot 66 (-6) and 67 (-5), respectively.
Howe, the third Jacket off the tee Wednesday, was 1-over-par after nine holes, but birdied 10, 11 and 12 in succession, then after a par at 13, made eagle-birdie-birdie on the next three holes. He bogeyed 17 but birdied 18 and posted a 66.
Steelman recorded six birdies and an eagle to fashion a 4-under-par 68, while Lamprecht birdied four holes on the back side and shot 69 (-3), which didn’t…
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