Jackets Post -10 at Amer Ari Intercollegiate – Men’s Golf — Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Kohala Coast, Hawai’i – Freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden) shot a 6-under-par 66 Thursday and is tied for 9^th place individually, while 12^th-ranked Georgia Tech posted a 10-under-par team total of 278 and is in 11^th place following the opening round of the Amer Ari Intercollegiate.

Beginning its quest to return to the NCAA Championship at season’s end, Tech is 16 strokes off the pace set by No. 9 Oklahoma State with 36 holes to play. No. 3 Auburn, the defending NCAA champion, is the only top-50 team behind the Yellow Jackets, who reached 15-under-par at one point placed three players under par in the opening round.

Twenty teams are competing over three days (Thursday through Saturday) at the Mauna Lani Resort’s North Course in the 34^th edition of the event, which has attracted an increasingly strong field over the years. This year’s field features nine teams nationally ranked in the Top 25, including six of the Top 10.

Round 2 begins at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time Friday with a shotgun start.

Benjamin Reuter is tied for 36th place after firing a 69 (-3). (photo by Clyde Click)

TECH LINEUP – Hansson played a near flawless round Thursday, recording seven birdies against one bogey on the Mauna Lani Resort’s North course. Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands), Tech’s highest-ranked player, birdied six of his first nine holes, but ran into trouble on the front side of the course withy three bogeys and a double bogey and finishes at 3-under-par 69, tied for 36^th place.

Sophomore Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) was the third Tech player under par, posting a 1-under-par 71, and defending NCAA individual champion Hiroshi Tai (Singapore) delivered the Jackets’ fourth counting score with an even-par 72.

Sophomore Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and freshman Didrik Ringvall Bengtsson (Stockholm, Sweden), who is competing as an individual, each shot 76 (+4).

TEAM LEADERBOARD – Oklahoma State counted four players under par, including individual leader Preston Stout’s 10-under-par 62, to post a 26-under-par total of 262, two shots ahead of No. 2 Arizona State (264, -24). No. 6 North Carolina and No. 38 Oregon are tied for third place at 268 (-20).

Nineteen of the 20 teams in the field are under par after the opening round.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Stout has a one-stroke lead over Oregon’s Eric Doyle, who posted a 9-uunder-par 63. Stout’s Cowboy teammate Ethan Fang and Arizona State’s Michael Mjaaseth are tied for third…