Charlotte, N.C. – Seniors Bartley Forrester (Gainesville, Ga.), with a 5-under-par 66, and Christo Lamprecht (George, South Africa), with a 4-under-par 67, led the way for Georgia Tech Friday as the 16th-ranked Yellow Jackets shot 6-under-par 284 to take third place after the opening round of the 70th Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Golf Championship.
Forrester posted his best-ever round in an ACC Championship and is tied for the lead with Wake Forest’s Michael Brennan, last year’s medalist.
Tech sits seven shots behind Wake Forest, its opening round playing partner. The Demon Deacons posted a 13-under-par total of 271 and have a four-stroke lead over North Carolina, the top seeded and highest-ranked team in the championship. Stroke play continues at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, after which the top four teams on the leaderboard will be seeded for match play beginning Monday morning.
Tech is paired with Wake Forest and North Carolina for tomorrow’s second round, with the first groups set to tee off at 10 a.m.
The Yellow Jackets and Demon Deacons are tied for the most ACC championships all-time, with 19 each. Tech won last year’s title with a 3-2 victory over Wake in the championship match, and the Deacons won the 2022 title over the Jackets by the same score.
First-round highlights from Bartley Forrester's round of 68
TECH LINEUP – Forrester had little trouble traversing the 7,396-yard layout at Charlotte Country Club Friday, posting only one bogey after three-putting the par-4 eighth. The fifth-year senior started with birdies on four of his first seven holes, then added two more at 9 and 10 en route to his best career round in the ACC Championship.
Lamprecht opened his round by driving the green on the first hole and making his putt for eagle, then added birdies at 9 and 13 and played a bogey-free round of 71. The world-No. 1 amateur is tied for third place with Clemson’s Jonathan Nielsen and North Carolina’s Peter Fountain.
Sophomore Hiroshi Tai (Singapore), who was runner-up for medalist honors as a freshman, added an even-par 71, and freshman Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) opened with a 3-over-par 74 to contribute to the Jackets’ opening-round score. Freshman Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) did not count after carding a 4-over-par 75.
Bartley Forrester talks about his opening round of 68
TEAM LEADERBOARD – Four Wake Forest players broke 70 in the opening round to lead the Demon Deacons to 13-under-par total of 271 and a four-shot lead over North Carolina after the first round. The Tar Heels (9-under-par 275) posted four subpar rounds.
The next five teams on the leaderboard are separated by just five strokes as Tech holds third place at 278 (-6), followed by Florida State at 280 (-4), NC State at 281 (-3), Clemson at 282 (-2) and Duke at 283 (-1).
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Tech’s Bartley Forrester is off to a good start in his bid to win a third collegiate title with a 5-under-par 66 Friday, tied with Wake Forest’s Michael Brennan, working to win medalist honors for the second straight year.
They are one stroke ahead of the Yellow Jackets’ Christo Lamprecht, Clemson’s Jonathan Nielsen and North Carolina’s Peter Fountain, each of whom shot 4-under-par 67.
Four players, including the Demon Deacons’ Marshall Meisel and Collin Adams, are tied at 3-under-par 69, with Wake’s Scotty Kennon in a group of five players at 2-under-par 69. Another group of five players are tied at 1-under-par 70.
Round 1 - ACC Championship
Photos by Andy Mead
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The ACC Championship is in the state of North Carolina for the second straight year, at Charlotte (N.C.) Country Club, completing a four-year rotation to different sites within the ACC footprint. Last year’s championship was contested at the Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst, N.C., following the 2023 championship at Shark’s Tooth Golf Course at Watersound Club in Panama City, Fla., and the 2021 championship at the Capital City Club’s Crabapple Course in Milton, Ga.
The ACC Championship is being conducted for the fourth time under a combination stroke play/match play format Friday through Monday. The championship uses the traditional 54-hole, stroke-play format from 1980 to 2019 (the championship was not held in 2020 due to COVID-19). All 12 competing teams (Miami, Pittsburgh and Syracuse do not sponsor men’s golf) play 54 holes of stroke play, 18 holes each Friday, Saturday and Sunday, starting at 9 a.m., with the standard low four individual rounds counting toward the team’s daily score each round.
The top four teams after 54 holes are seeded in a match play bracket, with the semi-final matches and the championship match to take place Monday. Each match will be 18 holes and involve all five players from each team. Semifinal matches begin at 7:30 a.m. Monday, followed by the championship match at 1:30 p.m.
The Yellow Jackets have captured 11 of the last 17 championships, most recently winning the 2023 title at the Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst, N.C. Tech players have captured medalist honors 11 times, with David Duval and Anders Albertson winning twice each.
BROADCAST INFORMATION – Semifinal matches and the championship match will be streamed live on the ACC Network Extra platform, available on the ESPN app.
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 is in its 29th year under head coach Bruce Heppler, having won 72 tournaments in his tenure. Heppler is the 10th-longest-tenured head coach in Division I men’s golf. The Yellow Jackets have won 19 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made 33 appearances in the NCAA Championship and been the national runner-up five times. Connect with Georgia Tech Golf on social media by liking their Facebook page, or following on X (@GTGolf) and Instagram. For more information on Tech golf, visit Ramblinwreck.com.
