Panama City, Fla. – No. 21 Georgia Tech recorded a strong finish in the final round of stroke play on Saturday, battling wind and rain for half the round, to finish 54 holes tied for third and advance to match play at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship. As been reminiscent this season, the Yellow Jackets saved the best for last, carding one of the lowest team rounds of the day with a 3-under-par 285 to finish with a three-round total of 862 (-2).
Tech, who has now advanced to match play the past five ACC Championships, will start the Sunday quarterfinals as the No. 4 seed against five-seed Florida State at 7:30 a.m. CT. The winner of that match will face the winner of No. 1 Stanford and No. 8 Duke in one semifinal afternoon match. On the other side of the bracket, No. 2 Virginia will face No. 7 Louisville, while No. 3 seed North Carolina will take on No. 6 Clemson. Those winners will face off in the other semifinal.
The semifinal winners square off in the championship match at 9 a.m. CT Monday.
The Jackets got off to a slow start on the back nine (Tech’s opening nine), but gained momentum as they approached the turn. Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) finished the back nine birdie-birdie-birdie, while both Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden) and Aidan Tran (Fresno, Calif.) birdied two of the final three holes heading into the front nine. Tech carried momentum into the remainder of the round to secure a five-stroke improvement from round two and finished stroke play tied for third.
Fifteen teams are competing for the prestigious ACC title, which includes 54 holes of stroke play to determine eight teams that qualify for match play. Twelve teams entered the tournament ranked among the top 50 in the Scoreboard NCAA Rankings, with five of those, including the Yellow Jackets, ranked in the top 25.
The ACC Championship returned to the state of Florida for the third time in the history of the championship, and will be played at the Shark’s Tooth Golf Club (par 72, 7,199 yards) for the second time in five seasons. Georgia Tech has had success in ACC Championships played in Florida, capturing the title in 2001 and finishing runner-up in 2022.
Hiroshi Tai finished tied for 10th with a 54-hole total of 3-under-par 213.
TECH LINEUP – Finishing stroke play with consecutive rounds of 70, Hiroshi Tai (Singapore) remained steady all Saturday, playing a nearly flawless round. The senior recorded four birdies with bogeys on holes 18 and 9 to…
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