Aug. 16, 2007
ATLANTA – Current Georgia Tech golfers Cameron Tringale, Taylor Hall and John Tyler Griffin, as well as 2000 graduate Carlton Forrester have made it through sectional qualifying and are in the field for two days of stroke play when the 2007 United States Amateur Championship begins Monday at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, Calif.
Tringale, a rising junior and two-time All-American from Laguna Niguel, Calif., and Griffin, a red-shirt freshman from Wilson, N.C., won their respective sectional qualifying events in Arroyo Grande, Calif., and Independence, Minn. Hall, a rising junior from LaGrange, Ga., tied for third place at the Capital City Club Crabapple Course in Atlanta. Forrester, a resident of Birmingham, Ala., and a finalist in the 2005 U.S. Mid-Amateur, qualified by tying for fifth place at the Standard Club in Duluth, Ga.
A total of 7,398 golfers attempted to qualify, and the Tech quartet will be among 312 golfers competing Monday and Tuesday for the right to advance to the 64-player match play portion of the event. The golfers will play 18 holes at the 6,948-yard, par-70 Lakeside Course and 18 at the 6,786-yard, par-70 Ocean Course. All matches will be contested on the Lakeside Course.
The 64 survivors begin match play Wednesday, Aug. 22, with the 36-hole final scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 26. The Golf Channel will provide coverage of the first-round, third-round and quarterfinal matches, while NBC will televise the semifinals and finals. See the official site of the U.S. Amateur for scoring and other information.
Griffin, who red-shirted last year at Tech, is in the Amateur for the third time. Tringale, the Atlantic Coast Conference champion in 2006 and the runner-up in 2007, is in the U.S. Amateur field for the second time, as is Forrester, while Hall is competing for the first time.
Tringale and Hall are paired together for both rounds of stroke play along with Douglas Clapp of Walpole, Mass. They tee off at 4:25 p.m. Eastern time Monday at the Ocean Course, 11:10 a.m. Eastern Tuesday on the Lakeside Course.
Griffin is paired with 2007 NCAA champion Jamie Lovemark of Southern California, and Michael O’Neal of Jacksonville, Fla. His group begins play at 11:40 a.m. Monday on the Lakeside Course, 4:55 p.m. Tuesday on the Ocean Course. Forrester’s group, which includes Nick Little of Crozet, Va., and Andy Mickelson of Minooka, Ill., has tee times of 10:40 a.m. Monday on the Ocean Course, 3:55 p.m. Tuesday on the Lakeside Course.
Two Tech alumni have won the U.S. Amateur championship – Matt Kuchar in 1997 when he was a rising sophomore at the Institute, and the legendary Bobby Jones five times (1924, 1925, 1927, 1928 and 1931).
