No. 11 Yellow Jackets seeded No. 2 to begin quest for NCAA Championship
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THE FLATS – Georgia Tech begins its quest for a 31st all-time trip to the NCAA Championship finals Monday at the NCAA Columbus Regional at the Ohio State University Golf Club in Columbus, Ohio. It is one of six regional qualifying tournaments being held around the country Monday through Wednesday to determine the 30-team field for the NCAA Division I Men’s Championship, which begins May 27in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The top five teams in each regional qualifier advance to the NCAA Championship. Tech is the No. 2 seed in Columbus, behind the nation’s No. 2-ranked team, Oklahoma State. The remainder of the 13 teams, in order of seed, are Arkansas (14), Clemson (23), East Tennessee State (31), host Ohio State (27), Duke (42), Northwestern (44), Florida Gulf Coast (51), San Francisco (61), Kentucky (65), Wright State (94) and Southern Illinois (152). East Tennessee State (Southern), Southern Illinois (Missouri Valley) and Wright State (Horizon League) are automatic qualifiers after winning their conference tournaments.
The Yellow Jackets are playing in an NCAA regional for the 24thstraight year and for the 31st time in the 33 years the NCAA has used a regional qualifying format for its championship (the NCAA Championship and regionals were not conducted in 2020 due to COVID-19).
Tech last played an NCAA regional in Columbus in 2008, where the Yellow Jackets finished 15th (in a 27-team field) and failed to advance to the NCAA Championship finals. The OSU course also has hosted three NCAA Championships, in 1987, 1995 and 2002. The Yellow Jackets were the runner-up team in 2002, where Troy Matteson was the individual champion. Tech also won the 2014 and 2015 Robert Kepler Invitational, a regular-season event, at the Scarlet Course.
Tech has advanced to the finals in six of the nine years, including each of the last two, finishing fourth in 2019 (Pullman, Wash.) and third last spring (Tallahassee, Fla.).
The top seeds in each regional are top-ranked Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., No. 2 Oklahoma State in Columbus, Ohio, No. 3 Vanderbilt in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., No. 4mArizona State in Stockton, Calif., No. 5 North Carolina in New Haven, Conn., and No. 6 Pepperdine in Bryan, Texas.
As the No. 2 seed, the Yellow Jackets will begin round 1 from the first tee from 7:30 to 8:14 a.m., paired with Oklahoma State and Arkansas. Teams and individuals will be re‐paired according to score after the first and second rounds.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION/FORMAT – Eighty-one teams and 45 individuals are competing for spots in the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship finals in six regional qualifying tournaments. The top five teams and one individual from each regional will advance to the finals (30 teams and six individuals total), which will be conducted May 27-June 1 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Each regional is a 54-hole, stroke-play event, three of which have 13 teams and 10 individuals, the other three 14 teams and five individuals, competing. Tech is part of a regional field that includes 13 teams and 10 individuals.
The Columbus regional in which Tech will compete includes eight teams that are ranked among the top 50 teams in the nation according to Golfstat. Competition begins at 7:30 a.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the OSU Golf Club’s Scarlet Course, which measures 7,422 yards and plays to a par of 72.
TEAM UPDATE – With four starters back from the 2021 squad that finished 15th at the NCAA Championship and adding two key contributors who have formed the core of the 2021-22 team, Georgia Tech has won four tournaments in 10 tournaments this year. Tech won the Maui Jim Intercollegiate and the Hamptons Intercollegiate in the fall, and added titles in the Watersound Invitational and The Calusa Cup this spring, elevating the Yellow Jackets to No. 11 in the Golfstat rankings and to No. 11 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index.
At the ACC Championship two weeks ago, Tech finished second in stroke play and advanced to the championship match, where they fell to Wake Forest, 3-2. The final and deciding individual match went to the 21st hole, where freshman Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands) lost to Alex Fitzpatrick.
Tech owns a 26-20 mark head-to-head against the nation’s top 25 teams, according to Golfstat (28-19 according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Index), and is 52-24-2 against teams in the top 50, according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Index.
The Yellow Jackets rank among the nation’s top 12 in a number of statistical categories, according to Golfstat – No. 3 in stroke average (70.97) and first in first-round stroke average (70.70), No. 13 in last-round stroke average (71.44), No. 5 in par-4 scoring average (4.03), No. 2 in par-5 scoring average (4.63), No. 2 in aggregate comparison to par (-0.53) and No. 11 in total birdies (591) and No. 6 in average drop score (75.36).
Each of the Jackets except Reuter and Smith have at least two top-10 finishes this year, and three Tech players are listed among Golfstat’s top 90 players nationally. At No. 28, sophomore Christo Lamprecht (George, South Africa) holds the highest Golfstat ranking among the Yellow Jackets with six top-10 finishes this year following his tie for third at the ACC Championship. Junior Bartley Forrester (Gainesville, Ga.), ranked No. 85, captured a share of medalist honors at The Calusa Cup and has finished no lower than 22nd in Tech’s last five events this spring. Junior Ross Steelman (Columbia, Mo.) has five top-10 finishes, three of them this spring, while junior Connor Howe (Ogden, Utah) has a pair of top-10 finishes in 2021-22 and is ranked No. 87.
All five Tech starters at the ACC Championship have stroke averages of 71.79 or better, led by Lamprecht’s 69.73, and senior Ben Smith (Novi, Mich.), the Jackets’ sixth man, averaged 72.19 over 21 rounds). Tech may also have one of the tallest teams in collegiate golf, with Lamprecht at 6-foot-8, Forrester and Steelman at 6-5 each, Reuter at 6-3, Howe at 6-2 and Smith at 6-1.
TECH LINEUP – Christo Lamprecht, Bartley Forrester and Connor Howe have been a part of Georgia Tech’s starting lineup for all nine tournaments in 2021-22 and will lead the Yellow Jackets in the ACC Championship along with Ross Steelman and either Ben Smith or Benjamin Reuter. Steelman missed one event, The Goodwin in late March, due to mononucleosis, but has been a part of the starting five for each of the other eight tournaments. Smith and Reuter have essentially split manning the No. 5 spot for most of the events this year; Reuter will play No. 5 for Tech at the outset, with Smith ready as a substitute.
