Oct. 20, 2006
ATLANTA – Looking for a good springboard into the spring season, Georgia Tech’s golf team plays its final fall tournament beginning Sunday at the Isleworth-UCF Collegiate Invitational in Windermere, Fla.
The third annual event includes 11 of the nation’s top 25 teams from the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index. Oklahoma State (No. 5) and Georgia (No. 8), champions of the first two Isleworth events, are in the 18-team field along with No.2 Florida, No. 4 Clemson, No. 11 North Carolina, No. 14 Georgia State, No. 17 Texas A&M, No. 19 Duke, No. 20 Wake Forest and No. 25 Texas Tech.
The tournament consists of 18-hole rounds Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, contested at Isleworth Country Club outside of Orlando, better known as the home of PGA Tour stars Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara. Live scoring of the event is available at Golfstatresults.com.
The Yellow Jackets have finished third in each of the first two Isleworth events, while All-American Roberto Castro placed fourth (four-under-par 212) and 12th (even-par 216) in two tries. Winner of Tech’s qualifying tournament for this event by nine shots, Castro leads a Tech travel team that includes sophomores Adam Cohan, David Dragoo, Taylor Hall and Cameron Tringale.
Tringale, a second-team All-American last year, is Tech’s highest-ranked player currently in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index (No. 55), and has two top-20 finishes in three events this fall. He tied for 19th at the Carpet Capital Collegiate and tied for 13th at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational. He has a 71.88 stroke average to lead the team.
Castro, a senior from Alpharetta, Ga., has one top-20 finish this fall and a 72.88 average, followed by Hall, from LaGrange, Ga., with one top-20 and a 73.22 norm. Cohan, from Wayne, Pa., has a 72.83 average in two events, while Dragoo, from Scottsdale, Ariz., is making his 2006-07 debut.
As a unit, Tech has struggled in the fall, finishing no higher than third in its three events, with no individual placing higher than a tie for 13th. Head coach Bruce Heppler is hopefully his top players begin to approach their past level of performance, and the rest of team follows along.
“We need to play better,” he said. “The key to that is having our All-Americans play like All-Americans. If they can get it going, it rubs off on the other players. We haven’t had anyone compete for a title individually (this fall), and when that happens, you’re not doing to finish high as a team. This event has a great field, and it’s a great opportunity for us to come out of the fall feeling good about ourselves.”
