THE FLATS – Making its third trip to the West Coast and beyond this spring, Georgia Tech’s 15th-ranked golf team heads to San Francisco, Calif., to compete against a large, nationwide field in The Goodwin, which is played Thursday through Saturday at TPC Harding Park golf course.
The Yellow Jackets, No. 15 in the Scoreboard collegiate rankings and No. 11 in the Bushnell/GCAA coaches poll, are facing the largest field of any tournament on Tech’s schedule. Thirty teams will play 18 holes each day, with tee times starting 10 a.m. EST from the first and 10th tees. Ten of the competing teams are listed in the top 50 of the current Scoreboard NCAA Golf Rankings, including Tech (15), Tennessee (8), California (20) and Oregon (24) in the top 25.
Tech has three starters back from a team that won the program’s 19th Atlantic Coast Conference championship and posted a runner-up finish at the NCAA Championship last spring, including seniors Bartley Forrester (Gainesville, Ga.) and Christo Lamprecht (George, South Africa) and sophomore Hiroshi Tai (Singapore). They have formed the core of the Tech lineup this spring along with freshmen Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) and Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.).
Tech has two tournaments remaining on its spring schedule, The Goodwin and the Calusa Cup on April 7-9, before heading to Charlotte, N.C., in mid-April to defend its ACC title.
Hiroshi Tai has finished in the top 12 in each of Tech’s last three tournaments. (photo by Clyde Click)
TECH LINEUP – Head coach Bruce Heppler, in his 29th year coaching the Yellow Jackets, has utilized the same starting five for all four spring events and will do so again for The Goodwin.
Lamprecht is currently ranked the No. 1 amateur in the world, No. 2 in the PGA Tour University ranking, and No. 4 in the Scoreboard collegiate ranking. The 6-8 senior won twice in the fall, winning the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational and the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational, and missed a third victory by one stroke at the Watersound Invitational in early February. He owns a team-best 69.00 stroke average, which is on pace to set a Tech program record.
Tai has finished in the top 20 of Tech’s last six tournaments dating back to the fall, including a tie for seventh (Watersound Invitational), fifth (RE Lamkin Invitational) and 12th (Linger Longer Invitational) in the last three. Listed No. 79 in the latest Scoreboard ranking, Tai is a combined 31 strokes under par for his 12th…
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