THE FLATS – Georgia Tech, seeded No. 11 and fresh off a victory at the NCAA Salem Regional last week, is set to begin competition in the NCAA Championship finals for the 32nd time in program history, looking for the program’s first national championship, when the Yellow Jackets tee off Friday morning at Grayhawk Golf Club.
Head coach Bruce Heppler’s 28th Tech team returns four starters from a team that tied for 12th in last year’s NCAA Championship, and three from the unit that finished 15th in 2022, both of which were played at Grayhawk. Since the NCAA added match play to the format to determine its champion in 2009, the Yellow Jackets have advanced to match play four times and looks to return for the first time since 2014.
Tech enters the NCAA Championship playing its best golf of the year, having won its 19th Atlantic Coast Conference Championship in April and the NCAA Salem Regional last week. They were the Yellow Jackets’ first victories of 2022-23 after posting runner-up finishes five times in the regular season.
The Yellow Jackets bring three All-ACC performers – senior Connor Howe (Ogden, Utah), junior Christo Lamprecht (George, South Africa) and senior Ross Steelman (Columbia, Mo.) to Arizona along with senior Bartley Forrester (Gainesville, Ga.) who was Tech’s high finisher individually (T-15) at last year’s NCAA Championship and freshman Hiroshi Tai (Singapore), a two-time winner this year and a runner-up at the ACC Championship.
Tech tees off at 9:32 a.m. Eastern time Friday afternoon (hole No. 1) and 2:52 p.m. Saturday morning (10th hole), paired with No. 10 seed Oklahoma, who finished second at the Norman Regional) and No. 12 seed Auburn (winner of the Auburn regional) for the first two rounds. Tee times and pairings for the remaining rounds of stroke play will be determined by team position on the leaderboard. Thirty teams will play 54 holes Friday through Sunday, with the field cut to 15 for the final round of stroke play Monday, after which the individual champion will be crowned. The top eight teams after 72 holes will advance to a match play bracket to determine the team champion on Wednesday.
Vanderbilt, the nation’s top-ranked team and the runner-up at the Auburn Regional last week, is the top seed at the NCAA Championship, followed by North Carolina (third at Salem Regional), Illinois (second at Bath Regional), Arizona State (champion at Las Vegas Regional), Texas Tech (fourth at Norman Regional), Stanford (second…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Men’s Golf – Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets…