Tran Shares Second Place at the Calusa Cup – Men’s Golf — Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Naples, Fla. – Sophomore Aidan Tran fired a 3-under-par 69 Sunday to grab a share of second place on the individual leaderboard, while 15^th-ranked Georgia Tech posted a 5-over-par total of 293 and is tied for fifth place after the opening round of the Calusa Cup at Calusa Pines Golf Club.

The Yellow Jackets, No. 15 in the Scoreboard collegiate rankings, were only able to get one subpar score in Sunday’s opening round and are 10 strokes off the pace of Florida (283, -5), tied with Iowa. The second round tees off at 12 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

Tech is playing the Calusa Cup without its top player, All-American Christo Lamprecht (George, South Africa), who is playing in the Masters this week, an invitation that resulted from winning The Amateur Championship last summer. The senior from George, South Africa, ranked the No. 1 amateur in the world currently, defeated U.S. Amateur champion Nick Dunlap Sunday in the annual Georgia Cup, a match featuring the champions of the U.S. Amateur and British Amateur, at the Golf Club of Georgia, making eagle at the 18^th hole for a 1-up victory.

TECH LINEUP – Tran, a sophomore from Fresno, Fla., and the Yellow Jackets started strong Sunday on the first few holes at Calusa Pines Golf Club, with the sophomore making birdie at 1 and 2, freshman Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) recording an eagle at 2 and senior Bartley Forrester (Gainesville, Ga.) birdieing the second.

But only Tran maintained that level throughout his round, adding four more birdies to offset a bogey and a double bogey for his 69, his second-best round of the spring season. Sophomore Hiroshi Tai (Singapore) shot 1-over-par 73, Forrester finished at 2-over-par 74, and senior Aidan Kramer (Oviedo, Fla.) added a 5-over-par 77 for the Jackets’ counting scores. Fontenot shot 7-over 79.

The Jackets also are missing freshman Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.), who has been in Tech’s starting five for each spring event and stayed home with an injury.

Aidan Tran’s best finish this year has been a tie for 12th at the Linger Longer Invitational. (photo by Clyde Click)

TEAM LEADERBOARD – The defending national champion Gators (283, -5), ranked 16^th in the nation, got a pair of 69s from its lineup and lead by four shots over Wake Forest (287, -1). They were the only teams in the limited eight-team field to break par Sunday.

Purdue (289, +1) is in third place, followed by Georgia (291, +3), with Tech and Iowa tied at 293, +5). Miami of Ohio (296, +8) and…