Georgia Tech Golf in 2nd Place at Irish Creek Collegiate

April 7, 2018

Kannapolis, N.C. – Senior Jacob Joiner shot rounds of 69 and 74 Saturday and sits in 10th place, while third-ranked Georgia Tech posted rounds of 277 and 297 and stands in second place after 36 holes at the Cabarrus County Irish Creek Collegiate.

Pairings and Live Scoring via Golfstat

TECH LINEUP – Georgia Tech benefitted from three subpar rounds in the morning round, with senior carding 4-under-par 67 to pace the Yellow Jackets. Tech posted a 7-under-par 277 to tie with 15th-ranked Clemson, adding a 2-under-par 69 Joiner, a 1-under-par 70 from sophomore and an even-par 71 from sophomore .

The afternoon was far different – no Yellow Jacket was able to even match par – with sophomore leading the way with a 2-over-par 73. Joiner and Schniederjans added 74s, and Strafaci provided the fourth counting round with a 76.

TEAM LEADERBOARD – Georgia Tech and Clemson, both playing this weekend without their highest-ranked players, were tied at 7-under-par 277 after the morning round, eight strokes ahead of third-place Kansas and UNC Greensboro. But the 15th-ranked Tigers navigated the difficult weather conditions over the par-71, 7,099 Club at Irish Creek better than the rest of the field in the afternoon, taking a nine-stroke lead over the Yellow Jackets heading into Sunday’s final round.

Clemson posted a 4-over-par 288 in the afternoon and finished 36 holes at 565 (-3), the only team under par for the tournament. Tech faltered on the back nine in the second round, dropping 10 shots to par to post a 13-over-par 297 and finish 36 holes at 574 (+6).

UNC Greensboro is in third place at 577 (+9), followed by No. 29 North Florida at 580 (+12) and No. 35 Kansas at 582 (+14). James Madison (585), West Virginia (588), VCU (595), Indiana and Middle Tennessee State (both at 596) round out the top 10 in the 15-team field.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Clemson teammates Turk Pettit, firing rounds of 66-70 for a 36-hole total of 136 (-6) and Kyle Cottam, with rounds of 68-70 for a total of 138 (-4) hold the top two positions on the leaderboard heading into Sunday’s final round. Indiana’s Jake Brown and UNCG’s Bryce Hendrix are tied for third place at 2-under-par 140, followed by West Virginia’s Mark Goetz at 1-under-par 141.

They are the only individuals under par through 36 holes. A quartet of golfers at even-par 142 includes Daniel Sutton of Kansas, Alister Balcombe of VCU, Dillon Woods of North Florida and Logan Perkins of West Virginia. Tech’s is in a group of four tied for 10th place at 143 (+1).

COACH SAYS – “The weather got really brutal in the afternoon, and we just need to be tougher dealing with it. We did okay getting through 8-9-10-11-12, but the last five holes are the toughest on the course, and we didn’t handle those well. We’ve got 18 more holes to play tomorrow, and we’re still in the final groups, so we can finish strong.”

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – Georgia Tech is making its first appearance in the Cabarrus County Irish Creek Collegiate, which is in its ninth year. The two-day 54-hole event concludes with the final 18-hole round at 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning on the par-71, 7,099-yard layout. In addition to the co-hosts Charlotte and Davidson, the 15-team field features Akron, Clemson (No. 15), Dartmouth, Dayton, Georgia Tech (No. 4), Indiana, James Madison, Kansas (No. 35), Middle Tennessee State, UNCG, North Florida (No. 29), West Virginia and VCU. Four of the participating teams are ranked in the top-50 of the current Golfstat rankings, while six competitors sit inside the top-100 individually.