May 30, 2015

@GT_Golf Alone in 7th at NCAA Championship

May 30, 2015

Bradenton, Fla. – Sophomore Vincent Whaley fired a 1-under-par 71 Saturday, and Georgia Tech posted a 7-over-par 295 and held position after 36 holes of the NCAA Golf Championship at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla.

The 12th-ranked Yellow Jackets followed Friday’s pattern with a slow start, a mid-round rally and then a couple of shots given away late. But Tech essentially held its position in the middle of the top 15 teams, 14 shots off the lead and six strokes above the cutline. The 30-team field will be pared to the top 15 following Sunday’s round, with those teams and the top nine individuals not on those teams competing in a final round Monday to determine the top eight teams for match play and the individual champion.

Interviews (audio): Heppler | Schniederjans | Whaley
Scores and highlights: NCAA Leaderboard | @GT_Golf Twitter feed

TECH LINEUP – Whaley, a sophomore from McKinney, Texas, who was co-medalist at the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate in April, finished with a bogey but had five birdies in his round of 71 Saturday. Ollie Schniederjans’ only blip in an otherwise even-par round came at 15 when he pushed his tee shot into a bush and had a double-bogey, leaving the senior from Powder Springs, Ga., with a 74. Clark, a freshman from Columbus, Ga., birdied seven holes in his round of 75, including four on his second nine after beginning it with a pair of double bogeys. Albertson, the ACC individual champion, triple-bogeyed his 17th hole, but finished with a birdie for a 75. Freshman Chris Petefish followed his opening 70 with a 77.

Tech shot 295 (+7) in its second round Saturday, right in the middle of the 15 teams that played the morning wave. It left the Yellow Jackets with a 36-hole score of 588 (+13), which was tied for 12th place as the morning group completed their rounds. It proved far better once the afternoon teams completed play.

The Jackets continue to pace the field in birdies (42 through 36 holes, USC and Illinois second with 34) and par-5 scoring (-18), and are fourth in par-3 scoring (+3). But Tech has counted eleven holes of double-bogey or higher, including seven on Saturday, and rank 23rd in par-4 scoring (+39).

TEAM LEADERBOARD – Southern California, which played a solid 1-over-par round Friday, was one of two teams to play under par Saturday (285, -3) and took over first place in the team standings at 2-under-par 574. First-round leader Illinois shot 3-over-par 291 Saturday and settled into second place, three strokes back of the Trojans at 1-over-par 577. Georgia dropped four strokes to par late in its round and dropped into a tie for third with LSU at 5-over-par 581.

South Florida and Vanderbilt, the other team under-par on Saturday with a 4-under-par score of 284, are tied for fifth place at 585 (+9), with the Yellow Jackets in seventh at 588 (+12) for 36 holes.

The rest of the top 15: TCU and San Diego State (+13) tied for eighth place, Florida State (+14) in 10th, Auburn (+15) in 11th, Oklahoma State (+16) in 12th, and Charlotte (+17) in 13th. Oregon, Texas and Viirginia (+18) are tied for 14th place, with Washington, Florida and Virginia all within two shots of the cutline.

Tech’s playing partners for the first two rounds, seventh-ranked Stanford and 11th-ranked Oklahoma, are in 26th and 29th place, respectively.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – SMU’s Bryson Dechambeau shot 5-under-par 67 Saturday and grabbed a two-stroke lead in the individual race with a 36-hole total of 137. Illinois’ Thomas Detry followed his Friday 68 with a 71 and is in second place at 5-under 139. LSU’s Zach Wright is in third place at 4-under 140, while UAB’s Paul Dunne and Southern Cal’s Sean Crocker are tied for fourth at 3-under 141. Eleven others are under par for the championship.

Albertson is Tech’s highest individual on the leaderboard at even-par 144, tied for 17th place.

Stanford’s Maverick McNealy, the nation’s top-ranked individual, shot 72 Friday and is tied for 59th at 6-over 150, while No. 2 Jon Rahm of Arizona State is tied for 31st at 2-over 146.

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The 2015 NCAA Championship is being played at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla., which measures 7,483 yards and plays to a par of 72. This is the seventh year the NCAA has used the stroke play-to-match play format, in which the top eight teams after stroke play are seeded for team match play to decide the team champion.

This year, the finals schedule will consist of three days (54 holes) of stroke play on Friday through Sunday (May 29-31), after which the top 15 teams and nine individuals not on an advancing team will be determined. That is followed by a final day of 18 holes of stroke play (Monday, June 1) to determine the eight teams that will advance to match play, as well as the 72-hole individual champion. The team national champion will be determined in a team match-play format that consists of quarterfinal and semifinal matches on Tuesday (June 2), followed by the championship match on Wednesday (June 3).

TOURNAMENT FIELD – The Yellow Jackets are in the championship for the 27th time since 1985, which is tied for fourth most in that time period behind Oklahoma State (30), Florida (29) and Arizona State (28). All three of those teams are in this year’s field. Of the 30 teams in the field, all are ranked among Golfstat’s top 50 teams, with the lowest ranked team being No. 47 Charlotte, champion of the Chapel Hill Regional. Top-ranked Florida State is the top seed, followed by No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Arizona State. Illinois, Vanderbilt and South Carolina are the next three seeds. All of the Golfstat top 17 teams are in the field.

TECH’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY – Georgia Tech has reached the NCAA Championship finals for the 27th time since 1985 (28th time in program history), and has posted nine top-8 finishes in the last 13 tries.

The Yellow Jackets tied for 10th in 2009, the first-year of the stroke-play/match-play format, but qualified for match play each of the last four times they have advanced to the NCAA Championship (third in 2010, second in 2011, second in 2013, fifth in 2014). Tech did not advance out of its regional in 2012. Tech has lost to the eventual champion three times – Augusta State by the score of 3-2 in the quarterfinals in 2010 and 2011 and to Alabama (3-0-2) in 2013.

Tech finished as the runner-up in the NCAA Championship four times (1993, 2000, 2002 and 2005) in the previous 72-hole stroke-play format, more than any team in the history of the championship except Houston, Michigan, Texas and Wake Forest, who also have four, and Oklahoma State, which has five.

COACH Bruce Heppler SAYS – “It was almost exactly the same thing today. Fourteen, 15 and 16 into the wind are really hard, and then we turn around and make three birdies in 18 to kind of get going. There was a lot of good in it today. Vince showed that one round is only one round, and he hit some really good shots today. James came back with some birdies on the second nine to count for us. Ollie feels like he’s left some out there. This is not over until you’ve played the last hole, so you just keep plugging. Tomorrow you just have to shoot as low as you can, keep fighting.”

REMAINING CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
May 31 – Third round, pairings determined by 36-hole score, tee times begin at 7 a.m.
June 1 – Fourth round with top 15 teams and nine individuals, tee times begin at 11:30 a.m. (Golf Channel, 3-8 p.m. ET)
June 2 – Match play quarterfinals and semifinals, 7 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (Golf Channel, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., 3-8 p.m. ET)
June 3 – Championship match, 2:10 p.m. (Golf Channel, 1-8 p.m. ET)

Congrats @AndersAlbertson @ollie_gt & @petefish7 named today to GCAA All-East Region team. #togetherweswarm pic.twitter.com/TAq0IVYa0J
— Georgia Tech Golf (@GT_GOLF) May 30, 2015

.@ClarkYeahhjame @VinceWhaley_GT & @petefish7 watching @AndersAlbertson birdie 18 for a 75. pic.twitter.com/kJRlRoNVoJ
— Georgia Tech Golf (@GT_GOLF) May 30, 2015