March 26, 2016
Sylacauga, Ala. – Chris Petefish won both of his matches Saturday for Georgia Tech, but the Yellow Jackets lost their semifinal contest to 10th-ranked Vanderbilt, 4-1-1, and dropped its third-place match to No. 17 Alabama, 3-2-1, in the FarmLinks Collegiate Match Play Championship.
Auburn, ranked sixth in the nation, won the event with a 4-2 victory over Vanderbilt in the championship match, and defeated Alabama in a tiebreaker after splitting the six individual matches, in the semifinals.
THIRD-PLACE MATCH – Petefish completed a perfect day by taking down Alabama senior Tom Lovelady, 1-up. After trailing for most of the front nine, the Tech sophomore from Danville, Calif., won the 10th and 11th holes to get on top and never relinquished his lead. He won another hole at No. 14 to go 2-up, gave it back with a bogey at 17, but held on to the victory with a par at 18. Sophomore James Clark earned Tech’s other point with a 3 and 1 victory over Steven Setterstrom in a match he led most of the way. Jacob Joiner trailed the first eight holes of his match with Jonathan Hardee, battled back to take a one-hole lead early on the back nine, but wound up with a half.
Junior Vincent Whaley went back and forth in his match with Crimson Tide junior Robby Shelton, alternately falling behind a hole and squaring the match six times, but he bogeyed 17 and fell, 1-up. Freshman Tyler Joiner lost a 4 and 3 match to Davis Riley, and junior Michael Hines dropped a 3 and 1 decision to Dru Love.
SEMIFINAL MATCH – Petefish won the only individual match for the Yellow Jackets against the 10th-ranked Commodores, defeating Matthias Schwab 2-up after leading most of the way. Schwab birdied the par-3 17th to get within one hole, but the Tech sophomore birdied 18 to finish off the match as the Yellow Jackets fell to Vanderbilt, 4-1-1. Hines, who led most of his match against Zack Jaworski but fell behind late, earned a half for the Jackets, winning the 18th hole with a par when Jaworski bogeyed.
The Commodores won the other three matches handily – Theo Humphrey over James Clark, 3 and 2, Patrick Martin over Tyler Joiner, 5 and 4, and Will Gordon over Vincent Whaley, 4 and 3.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The FarmLinks Collegiate Match Play brought together Tech, ranked 47th in the nation in Golfstat, No. 6 Auburn, No. 17 Alabama and No. 10 Vanderbilt in a one-day, two-round tournament at FarmLinks Golf Club at Pursell Farms, a 7,444-yard, par 72 layout in Sylacauga, Ala.
The event is similar to one Tech hosted and won in 2014 at the Capital City Club Crabapple Course in Milton, Ga., which each team entering a six-player lineup. The matches are structured similar to those at the NCAA Championship, with each team’s No. 6 player facing each other, followed by their No. 5 players and so on.
