THE FLATS – With all five starters back from a team which won six events in 2018-19, including the program’s 18th Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, Georgia Tech has been ranked No. 3 in the preseason poll of coaches announced Friday by the Golf Coaches Association of America.
Head coach Bruce Heppler’s 25th Yellow Jacket team is No. 3 behind 2019 NCAA runner-up Texas and Arizona State. The Longhorns received nine of the 23 first-place votes, while the Sun Devils received two and Tech got three. NCAA semifinalists Oklahoma State (three first-place votes) and Vanderbilt (one first-place vote) round out the top five. NCAA quarterfinalists Wake Forest and Oklahoma, Auburn, the defending NCAA Champion Stanford, and Pepperdine all begin the season in the top 10.
Last year, Tech won the Carpet Capital Collegiate, the Maui Jim Invitational and the Jack Nicklaus Invitational in the fall, then followed by winning the Puerto Rico Classic, the Clemson Invitational and the ACC Championship in the spring. The Jackets finished fourth in the NCAA Pullman Regional and 18th at the NCAA Championship.
Tech’s lineup includes the reigning United States Amateur champion, senior Andy Ogletree from Little Rock, Miss., who was the Jackets’ highest-ranked player at the end of last spring, along with fellow seniors Luke Schniederjans (Powder Springs, Ga.) and Tyler Strafaci (Davie, Fla.), junior Noah Norton (Chico, Calif.) and sophomore Connor Howe (Ogden, Utah).
Ogletree earned second-team All-America honors from the GCAA, while Schniederjans made the third team. Strafaci and Norton joined them on the All-ACC team. The foursome racked up 16 individual top-10 finishes and ranked among the top 100 individually in the Golfstat and Golfweek/Sagarin ratings.
Ogletree, Norton and Schniederjans all qualified for the U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst, N.C., with Ogletree and Norton advancing to match play. Ogletree wound up capturing the title, the third Tech golfer in program history to bring home the Havemeyer Trophy, and earned a spot on the U.S. team for the Walker Cup matches, which will be played Sept. 7-8 in Hoylake, England.
Tech’s fall season opens Sept. 6-8 at the Carpet Capital Collegiate in Rocky Face, Ga.
Andy Ogletree logged five top-10 finishes last year, including a runner-up showing at the ACC Championship.
ACC Network has launched!
The ACC Network is a linear and digital platform dedicated to 24/7 coverage of ACC sports that launched on Aug. 22, 2019. It will exclusively televise approximately 450 live events each year, including 40 football games (beginning with Georgia Tech’s 2019 season opener at Clemson on Aug. 29), as well as 150 men’s and women’s basketball contests.
Don’t get shut out! For more information and to learn if your cable/satellite/digital provider is carrying the ACC Network, visit GetACCN.com. Georgia Tech fans whose cable/satellite/digital providers aren’t carrying the ACC Network are urged to contact their providers and ask for the ACC Network to be a part of their subscription.
ABOUT GEORGIA TECH GOLF
Georgia Tech’s golf team is in its 25th year under head coach Bruce Heppler, winning 59 tournaments in his tenure. The Yellow Jackets have won 18 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made 29 appearances in the NCAA Championship and been the national runner-up four times. Connect with Georgia Tech Golf on social media by liking their Facebook page, or following on Twitter (@GTGolf) and Instagram. For more information on Tech golf, visit Ramblinwreck.com.
