Sept. 23, 2005
ATLANTA – Led by its only incoming freshman, Georgia Tech’s golf team, ranked 12th in the nation in the preseason Golfweek magazine rankings, opens its fall schedule Monday at the Golfweek Preview Classic in Sunriver, Ore.
The 54-hole event, which is played annually at the site of the upcoming NCAA Championship, is being contested this year at the Crosswater Golf Club at Sunriver Resort, which measures 7,683 yards and plays to a par of 72. The field, likely the strongest Tech will face all year, includes Auburn, Augusta State, Brigham Young, Duke, Florida, defending national champion Georgia, Kentucky, New Mexico, Oklahoma State, Southern California, UNLV and Washington, all of whom are ranked in Golfweek’s top 25.
The tournament, in which the Yellow Jackets have finished second each of the last two years, starts Monday with the first 18 holes, and continues Tuesday and Wednesday. Live scoring is available at Golfstat.com.
Tech’s five-man contingent will be led by two freshmen making their first collegiate starts. Cameron Tringale, of Laguna Niguel, Calif., outdistanced red-shirt freshman Taylor Hall of LaGrange, Ga., by four strokes in the team’s five-round qualifying tournament at The Golf Club of Georgia.
“I didn’t really know how everyone would react (to the team’s qualifying competition),” said head coach Bruce Heppler, beginning his 11th year at Georgia Tech. “We’re taking two guys to their first college tournament. Having a freshman and a red-shirt freshman finish 1-2 in qualifying surprised me a little bit.”
Tringale was an alternate for the U.S. Amateur this summer, while also finishing ninth in the U.S. Junior Amateur, third in the Southern California Amateur and 10th in the Memorial Amateur in his home state. Hall tied for 10th at the American Amateur Classic this summer and tied for 28th at the Dogwood Invitational in Atlanta.
All-American Roberto Castro, a junior from Alpharetta, Ga., who finished third in last year’s NCAA Championship; Kevin Larsen, a junior from Santa Barbara, Calif., who has made Tech’s traveling squad for Tech’s last 11 events; and all-Atlantic Coast Conference performer Mike Barbosa, a senior from St. Petersburg, Fla., also will make the trip.
Castro, a two-time all-ACC selection ranked No. 2 nationally among returning players, begins his junior year with 12 top-10 finishes and a 71.36 stroke average in 24 career events. Barbosa posted a career-best 72.84 stroke average with five top-20 finishes last year and has started 19 straight events for the Yellow Jackets. Larsen posted a 74.79 stroke average in nine tournaments last year.
“Mike had to play well the last two days to go,” said Heppler. “But our objective was that the guys who go on the road had to earn it. The point this week is to get some rounds in on the course where the national championship is played, and get our minds accustomed to where we want to be eight months from now. Playing well is important. If we have a good experience here, it should be beneficial to us down the road.”
The Preview Classic is the first of five fall events on Tech’s schedule and is the beginning of the Yellow Jackets’ quest to reach the NCAA Championship for the ninth straight year. Tech has finished in the top five of the championship five times in the last six years, including runner-up finishes in 2000, 2002 and 2005.
