April 10, 2015
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech’s golf team gets its last test of the regular season this weekend when the 11th-ranked Yellow Jackets travel to Columbus, Ohio to defend its 2014 title in the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate at the Ohio State University Scarlet Course.
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TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The Robert Kepler Intercollegiate is a 54-hole collegiate event, with the low four scores out of five counting toward the team score for each round. The 14 teams will play 36 holes on Saturday with tee times beginning at 7:45 a.m. on the first and 10th tees, with the final 18 holes set for 8 a.m. Sunday, also in a split-tee start. The Scarlet Course at Ohio State, a par-71 layout measuring 7,455 yards, has been the site for three NCAA Championships (1987, 1995, 2002) in which Tech has competed, and one NCAA regional (2008). . The Yellow Jackets are the highest-ranked team in the field which includes three other top-50 teams – No. 28 UNLV, No. 30 SMU and No. 35 Houston.
TOURNAMENT HISTORY – Georgia Tech is playing in the Robert Kepler Invitational for the second time, having captured an 18-stroke victory last year with a winning score of 858 (+6). Ollie Schniederjans tied Ohio State’s Frederik Hammer for medalist honors at 3-under-par 210.
TEAM UPDATE – Georgia Tech is ranked No. 15 in this week’s Golfstat ranking and No. 11 in the Golfweek/Sagarin ratings. The Yellow Jackets tied Alabama for second place last weekend at the Mason Rudolph Championship in Nashville, Tenn., their second runner-up finish of the spring to go with one fourth-place and one 10th-place showing. All four spring tournaments through the Rudolph have featured at least eight teams which were ranked among the top 50 in the nation, against whom the Jackets have a 46-26-1 record this year. Tech’s schedule is ranked the 11th-most difficult in the nation according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Index.
TECH LINEUP – Senior All-Americans Ollie Schniederjans (Powder Springs, Ga.) and Anders Albertson (Woodstock, Ga.) anchor the Tech travel squad for this event. Albertson has been particularly strong of late, with three top-10 finishes and two 11th-place ties in his last five events dating back to Tech’s last fall event in Hawai’i. Albertson has matched or broken par in 12 of the 15 rounds and averaged 69.73 over that stretch. Schniederjans, a six-time winner in the last two years, rebounded from a poor finish at the Valspar Collegiate to tie for sixth place last week at the Mason Rudolph and remains Tech’s scoring average leader for the year at an even 70.0.
Also on the travel squad this week is Vincent Whaley (McKinney, Texas), who recorded his best finish of the year last week in Nashville, a tie for 11th with scores of 69-73-73 on a difficult golf course. They are joined by freshmen James Clark (Columbus, Ga.) and Chris Petefish (Danville, Calif.), who each have one top-10 finish this year.
COACH Bruce Heppler SAYS – “The regional sites are varied, and you never know where you’ll be sent. There is usually a Midwest site where the courses are different and the weather is different, so when planning the regular season, you want to have your team experience different conditions and it’s a great learning experience to get them out of what they’re comfortable with. The course is historic, and it’s a good challenge. It hosts a Web.com Tour playoff venue, so our guys get some rounds on a course that may matter later in their careers.”
ABOUT GEORGIA TECH GOLF
Georgia Tech’s golf team is in its 20th year under head coach Bruce Heppler. The Yellow Jackets have won 15 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made 27 appearances in the NCAA Championship and been the national runner-up four times. Connect with Georgia Tech Golf on social media by liking their Facebook page, or following on Twitter (@GT_Golf). For more information on Tech golf, visit Ramblinwreck.com.
