Oct. 20, 2013
Alpharetta, Ga. – After building a six-stroke lead on the front nine Sunday, Oklahoma State withstood a Georgia Tech rally on the back nine and held off the Yellow Jackets to capture a one-shot victory at the eighth annual United States Collegiate Championship. Tech’s Ollie Schniederjans took medalist honors with a four-stroke victory, his second title this fall.
The fifth-ranked Cowboys, over the course of the day on the 7,107, par 72 Lakeside Course at The Golf Club of Georgia, matched the No. 2 Yellow Jackets shot for shot and escaped with the outright win when Schniederjans of Tech slid his 8-foot birdie putt just left of the hole at 18.
On a day when it did not receive a counting score from stellar sophomore Jordan Niebrugge, a U.S. Walker Cup member and Western Amateur champion, Oklahoma State stood firm behind a 68 from Wyndham Clark, a 71 from Talor Gooch and a 72 from Ian Davis. The Cowboys shot 4-under-par 284 for the day and completed 54 holes at 15-under 849.
Tech, a two-time champion of the USCC, rallied behind solid back-nine performance from Bo Andrews, who shot a 2-under-par 70 and birdied the final two holes, Anders Albertson (71) and Richard Werenski (72). Seth Reeves, whose 73 didn’t count for the Jackets, also applied some pressure. Tech also shot 4-under 284 for the round and posted a 14-under-par tournament total of 850.
Schniederjans began the round with a four-shot lead in the individual race and built it to seven at one point and pushed his tournament score to 13-under-par, threatening the tournament 54-hole record of 12-under 204 set by former Tech teammate James White in 2010. His bogey at 10 and a double-bogey at 14 cost him that chance, but he finished at 10-under-par 206 and claimed his second tournament championship in four fall events. Virginia’s Ben Rusch was second at 6-under 210.
The win also earned the junior from Powder Springs, Ga., an exemption to next June’s Air Capital Classic on the Web.com Tour.
“I would trade everything for the team to win,” said Schniederjans, who birdied four of his first five holes Sunday. “I care so much about this team. I’m bummed about my back nine costing us. We lost by a shot, and I know I struggled on the back nine. Sometimes you come up clutch, and sometimes you’re a lip-out away. I’ve had my share of both. I got out to a hot start today, which was awesome. I made some good par saves coming in, and I hit a good putt at 18, but what can you do?”
Albertson wound up in third place at 5-under-par 211, his best finish of the fall, while Andrews earned his first top-10 of the fall with a 3-under-par score of 213. Reeves and Werenski tied for 39th place at 221 (+5).
“Our guys played hard and fought all the way to the end, and we just came up a putt short,” said Tech coach Bruce Heppler, whose team has two wins and two runner-up finishes in four fall events. “There are no fake winners here. We beat a lot of good teams this weekend. The objective is to win the tournament, but the guys played hard through the last hole, so it was positive. We’ve had a nice fall, and we’re looking forward to a good spring of competition.”
Tech and Oklahoma State distanced themselves from a field that included 10 of the nation’s top 25 teams. Wake Forest finished third at 2-under 862, followed by No. 14 Virginia at 1-under 863. No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 17 UCLA tied for fifth, and No. 9 Stanford and Iowa tied for seventh.
2013 UNITED STATES COLLEGIATE CHAMPIONSHIPThe Golf Club of Georgia, Alpharetta, Ga.Final Results
TEAM STANDINGS 1 Oklahoma State 284 281 284 849 -15 2 Georgia Tech 279 287 284 850 -14 3 Wake Forest 286 288 288 862 -2 4 Virginia 285 290 288 863 -1 T5 Texas A&M 285 292 287 864 E T5 UCLA 286 287 291 864 E T7 Iowa 287 287 292 866 +2 T7 Stanford 288 288 290 866 +2 9 Southern California 290 289 290 869 +5 10 Washington 294 287 293 874 +10 T11 Auburn 297 285 296 878 +14 T11 ETSU 294 290 294 878 +14 13 Kent State 296 295 290 881 +17 14 Duke 291 297 298 886 +22 15 Clemson 299 293 296 888 +24
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS 1 Ollie Schniederjans Georgia Tech 66 69 71 206 -10 2 Ben Rusch Virginia 66 74 70 210 -6 3 Anders Albertson Georgia Tech 70 70 71 211 -5 T4 Rico Hoey Southern California 70 71 71 212 -4 T4 Ian Vandersee Iowa 69 74 69 212 -4 T4 Danny Guise Wake Forest 72 70 70 212 -4 T4 Wyndham Clark Oklahoma State 73 71 68 212 -4 T4 Lorens Chan UCLA 71 71 70 212 -4 T4 Ian Davis Oklahoma State 71 69 72 212 -4 T10 Rhys Pugh ETSU 69 71 73 213 -3 T10 Andrew Lister Texas A&M 71 70 72 213 -3 T10 Thomas Birdsey Wake Forest 71 71 71 213 -3 T10 Bo Andrews Georgia Tech 70 73 70 213 -3 T10 Jordan Niebrugge Oklahoma State 69 70 74 213 -3 T15 Patrick Rodgers Stanford 75 72 67 214 -2 T15 Cameron Wilson Stanford 69 71 74 214 -2 T15 Denny McCarthy Virginia 72 70 72 214 -2 T18 Trevor Simsby Washington 76 70 69 215 -1 T18 Niclas Carlsson Auburn 72 69 74 215 -1 T18 Brian Bullington Iowa 70 70 75 215 -1 T18 Talor Gooch Oklahoma State 72 72 71 215 -1 T18 Jonathan Garrick UCLA 70 71 74 215 -1
GEORGIA TECH SCORES 1 Ollie Schniederjans (1) 66 69 71 206 3 Anders Albertson (3) 70 70 71 211 T10 Bo Andrews (5) 70 73 70 213 T39 Seth Reeves (2) 73 75 73 221 T39 Richard Werenski (4) 73 76 72 221
