Tech in 13th Place at Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate – Men’s Golf — Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Alpharetta, Ga. – Kale Fontenot and Hiroshi Tai each shot 1-over-par 73 Friday, pacing No. 9 Georgia Tech to an 8-over-par total of 296 and tying for 13^th place after the opening round of the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational.

None of the Yellow Jackets were able to break par on their home course on a perfect day weather-wise, and they find themselves 17 strokes of the pace of No. 7 Virginia, which has a one-stroke lead over UCLA. Fontenot and Tai are tied for 29^th place individually.

Tech has a victory under its collective belt at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational, where the Yellow Jackets bested No. 2 Arizona State by a stroke and a 15-team field that included 11 other top-25 teams, and a pair of eighth-place finishes at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate and the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational so far this fall.

The 14-team field includes four teams – Tech, Virginia (7) and Vanderbilt (10) – who advanced to match play at the NCAA Championship last May, and eight teams that competed in stroke play. Ten teams are currently ranked among the top-25 in the Scoreboard rankings.

Saturday’s round 2 begins at 9 a.m. from the first tee and 9:20 a.m. from the 10^th tee.

TECH LINEUP – Fontenot, a sophomore from Lafayette, La., had four birdies on his card Friday, but also two bogeys and a triple. Tai, a junior from Singapore and the defending NCAA Champion, had three birdies and four bogeys.

Red-shirt junior Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands) carded a 2-over-par 74 and is tied for 41^st place, while freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden) posted a 4-over 76 and is tied for 55^th. Sophomore Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) shot 77 (+5) and did not factor in the Jackets’ team score.

Tech’s best score Friday came from redshirt sophomore Brady Rackley IV (Atlanta, Ga.), who shot even-par 72 and is tied for 21^st place. Freshman Didrik Ringvall Bengtsson (Stockholm, Sweden) shot 2-over 74 and is tied for 41^st place, and junior Aidan Tran (Fresno, Calif.) shot 78 and is tied for 69^th.

Brady Rackley IV posted Tech’s best score Friday with an even-par 72. (photo by Clyde Click)

TEAM LEADERBOARD – No. 7 Virginia got four birdies and an eagle on the closing 18^th hole Friday to finish with a team score of 279 (-9) and grab the first-round lead by one stroke over UCLA, which had three subpar scores for an 8-under-par total of 280.

Duke (283, -5), Charlotte (284, -4), No. 10 Vanderbilt (285, -3) and Southern…