April 8, 2010
ATLANTA – Gearing up to defend its Atlantic Coast Conference championship in two weeks, Georgia Tech travels to Raleigh, N.C., this weekend to play in the Wolfpack Intercollegiate at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course located on NC State’s Centennial Campus.
This year’s tournament will be played for the first time on the Pack’s brand new par-71, 7,358-yard home course. The 17-team field includes Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest, providing the 16th-ranked Yellow Jackets a good look at the league before the ACC Championship in New London, N.C.
The tournament also will be a homecoming for three of the five members of Georgia Tech’s travel team this weekend – senior Chesson Hadley and freshman Bo Andrews from Raleigh, and junior John-Tyler Griffin from nearby Wilson. Joining them are junior Paul Haley of Dallas, Texas and sophomore James White of Acworth, Ga.
Andrews replaces junior Kyle Scott, who suffered back spasms during the final round of the Linger Linger Invitational two weeks ago and it not able to compete this weekend.
“It’s disappointing not to have Kyle with us this weekend, but it will give us a chance to see what Bo can do,” said head coach Bruce Heppler. “It’s a good trip from the standpoint that J.T. is from Wilson, and Chesson and Bo are from Raleigh and will get to play in front of their families and friends.
“This will be a good tuneup for the ACC Championship since most of the conference teams will be here, and we can see how we measure up against them 10 days out.”
Eight of the teams in the field are currently ranked in Golfstat.com’s top 50: Florida State (10), Georgia Tech (16), Virginia (20), Duke (26), Wake Forest (30), NC State (35), Michigan (44). Rounding out the field is Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston, East Carolina, Maryland, New Orleans, North Carolina, Purdue, UNC-Wilmington, VCU and Virginia Tech.
Griffin, the nation’s 21st-ranked player in the most recent Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, and White, ranked 34th, have been Tech’s leaders all season, combining for seven top-10 finishes and 12 top-20s. They rank fifth (71.95) and sixth (72.11), respectively, in the ACC in stroke average and are strong all-conference candidates.
Hadley, a senior and an All-American, has played well in Tech’s last two events, tying for 29th at the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters and 13th at the Linger Longer, and has the Jackets’ third-best stroke average at 73.23. Haley, who has played in seven of tech’s eight events with two top-20 finishes, tied for 19th at the Linger Longer and has a 75.00 average, while Andrews, playing in his sixth tournament, stands at 75.86.
The tournament will be played on Friday and Saturday, with 36 holes on the first day and 18 holes on Saturday. Action begins with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. on Friday, and tee times for Saturday are set to begin at 7:30 a.m. Live scoring and tee times are available at www.golfstat.com.
NC State has hosted its own tournament for the last 20 years in the Triangle area at various courses, and Tech was a regular in the event during the 1990s. Duke has won the team title each of the past two years (both times at River Landing in Wallace, N.C.), and NC State’s Matt Hill earned medalist honors last year with a four-stroke victory.
