Norman, Okla. – With a 3.57 combined grade-point average in 2023-24 and a roster highlighted by the Atlantic Coast Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year and three Academic All-Americans, Georgia Tech’s golf team was honored by the Golf Coaches Association of America Tuesday with a GCAA Outstanding Team Academic Award.
A total of 240 team across NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA, NJCAA Divisions I and II and HBCU were honored, qualifying with team GPA’s of 3.5 or higher, including 59 from NCAA Division I.
Ten of Tech’s 11 golfers posted GPA’s of 3.0 or better for the 2023-24 academic year to contribute to this honor. Tech and Vanderbilt are the only two of the eight NCAA Match Play participants to be honored.
“I’m thrilled, and I salute all the members of our team for receiving this honor,” said head coach Bruce Heppler, who has coached the Jackets for 29 years. “The last year and a half, our academic performance has been the best we’ve had. Our guys all work as hard in the classroom as they do with their golf, and it’s important to them.”
Christo Lamprecht, a senior from George, South Africa; Hiroshi Tai, a sophomore from Singapore, and Bartley Forrester, a graduate senior from Gainesville, Ga., were named All-America Scholars by the GCAA, which requires a 3.2 cumulative GPA, while Lamprecht and Tai were named Academic All-Americans by the Collegiate Sports Communicators, which requires a 3.5 GPA.
Further, Lamprecht was named ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year for golf, and six members of the team made the ACC’s All-Academic Golf Team, which requires a minimum 3.0 GPA for the spring and for the full 2023-24 academic year. Along with Lamprecht, Forrester and Tai, freshmen Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) and Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and sophomore Aidan Tran (Fresno, Calif.) made the ACC team.
Earlier in the spring, Tech’s golf team was honored by the NCAA for having a perfect 1,000 multi-year Academic Progress Report score. Tech golf has had a perfect APR score of 1,000 each of the 20 years since the metric was introduced.
On the golf course, the Yellow Jackets advanced to match play at the NCAA Championship for the second consecutive year, reaching the semifinals, and was ranked No. 17 at the end of the spring in the Scoreboard NCAA rankings. Lamprecht and Tai, who won the NCAA Championship, were named first-team All-Americans.
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of the development of Yellow Jackets that thrive academically at the Institute and compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes. To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
ABOUT GEORGIA TECH GOLF
Georgia Tech’s golf team has completed 29 years under head coach Bruce Heppler, winning 72 tournaments in his tenure. The Yellow Jackets have won 19 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made 33 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.
