April 25, 2015
New London, N.C. – Playing through intermittent showers throughout the round, Georgia Tech shot 9-under-par Saturday and grabbed the 36-hole lead by one shot at the 62nd annual ACC Championship at the Old North State Club in New London, N.C. The Yellow Jackets are in search of the program’s 16th all-time conference golf title and sixth in the last seven years.
The 2013 ACC individual champion Anders Albertson, with a 3-under-par 69 Saturday, leads the Yellow Jackets and is in second place on the individual leaderboard. Two strokes behind in third place is teammate and 2014 ACC individual champion, Ollie Schniederjans, who paced the Jackets in the second round with a 5-under-par 67.
ACC Championship page/Results and Live Scoring | ESPN3 telecast link
TEAM LEADERBOARD – Georgia Tech played the back nine in 9-under-par, including five birdies from Schniederjans, to post a 9-under par round of 279 and complete 36 holes in 13-under-par 563. The Yellow Jackets have a one-shot lead over three teams – Clemson (5-under Saturday), Florida State (6-under) and Virginia (7-under) – who are tied at 12-under-par 564. Virginia Tech also posted a 7-under-par round and stands fifth at 11-under 565. North Carolina (575, -1) is the only other team under par for the tournament.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Virginia Tech’s Trevor Cone recorded one of three rounds of 66 shot during Saturday’s round and finished 36 holes at 10-under-par 134. He is two strokes ahead of Albertson (Woodstock, Ga.), who has a two-round score of 138 (-8). Schniederjans (Powder Springs, Ga.) is tied for third place at 6-under 138 with Florida State’s Jack Maguire, who also shot 66 Saturday, and Louisville’s Robin Sciot-Siegrist (69).
North Carolina’s Henry Do, Clemson’s Billy Kennerly and Virginia’s Denny McCarthy are tied for sixth at 5-under 139. Nine others are under par for the tournament.
TECH LINEUP – Schniederjans had seven birdies, four on the back nine, and two bogeys in fashioning his round of 67, while Albertson birdied three holes on the front with one bogey, and one birdie on the back with no bogeys, for his 69. Freshman Chris Petefish (Danville, Calif.) moved into a tie for 18th individually after posting a 1-under 71, and sophomore Vincent Whaley (McKinney, Texas) provided the fourth counting score with an even-par 72 that included an eagle at the par-5 fourth hole.
COACH Bruce Heppler SAYS – “The guys played hard today, even with rain covering most of the round. We played really well over the last four holes to stay with the leaders. It should be a real shootout tomorrow, and it’ll be a great opportunity for our young guys to grow. I can’t wait to see them compete.”
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The ACC Championship is a 54-hole collegiate event, with the low four scores out of five counting toward the team score for each round. Sunday’s final round will be a split-tee start at 8:30 a.m. with the top six teams after 36 holes starting on No. 1. Georgia Tech is paired with Florida State and Clemson, teeing off from 9:30-10:10 a.m. from the first tee. ESPN3 will provide live streaming coverage of the closing holes from 1-3 p.m.
The Old North State Club, home to the ACC Tournament every year since 2002, is a par-72 layout measuring 7,102 yards. Nine of the 12 ACC teams are listed in the top 50 of this week’s Golfstat rankings, including Virginia (23), Wake Forest (27), Clemson (36), Virginia Tech (38), Duke (45) and NC State (48).
TOURNAMENT HISTORY – Georgia Tech got back on the winning track in 2014 with a six-stroke victory over Florida State at the 61st annual championship at the Old North State Club. It was Tech’s fifth title in the last six years and seventh in the last nine.
Ollie Schniederjans won medalist honors with a 12-under-par total of 204, five strokes better than Virginia’s Denny McCarthy and teammate Anders Albertson. That came one year after Albertson won with a tournament-record score of 201 (-15), breaking the previous mark of 202 set by Wake Forest’s Webb Simpson in 2008.
Schniederjans became Tech’s ninth ACC individual champion, joining Bob McDonnell (1985), David Duval (1991, 1993), Mikko Rantanen (1994), Bryce Molder (2000), Cameron Tringale (2006), Chesson Hadley (2010), Paul Haley (2011) and Albertson (2013).
Tech’s 15 ACC men’s golf titles in history ranks second among conference schools behind Wake Forest (18). Tech has won 10 of its conference titles under current head coach Bruce Heppler, eight of those outright (1999, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014) and two shared (2006, 2007). The Yellow Jackets won five championships (1985, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994) under previous head coach Puggy Blackmon.
Nine of Tech’s ACC titles have occurred at the Old North State Club, the first occurring in 1999 by 10 strokes over North Carolina and Duke. Tech won the 2011 crown with a tournament record score of 831 (-33) and by a record 20 strokes. Tech shared the 2006 title with North Carolina, and the 2007 crown with Virginia Tech.
