Charlotte, N.C. – For the third straight year, Georgia Tech has advanced to match play at the Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Golf Championship. The Yellow Jackets, who entered the 70th championship as the third seed, shot a final-round 4-over-par 288 Sunday and finished in a three-way tie for second place after 54 holes of stroke play.
Tech drew the No. 3 seed after the tie was broken using aggregate drop score, and will face No. 2 seed Florida State in one semifinal match at 7:30 a.m. Monday at Charlotte Country Club. Top seed North Carolina, which won the stroke play title by six shots, will take on No. 4 Wake Forest in the other semifinal. The Tar Heels finished stroke play at 10-under-par 842, while the other three teams tied at 4-under-pr 848.
Meanwhile, Christo Lamprecht came up one stroke shy of participating in a playoff for medalist honors, making bogey at the final hole after working himself into a tie for the lead on the back nine. The senior from George, South Africa finished the tournament at 6-under-par 207 and tied for third place, matching his career-best showing from 2022.
The winners of the morning semifinals will return to the course 60 minutes after the conclusion of those contests for the championship match. Both the semifinals and the finals will be streamed live on ACC Network Extra, available online at WatchESPN and on the ESPN app, with coverage beginning at 9 a.m.
All five players from each team will be involved in the matches. Each team match consists of five singles matches, with the winner of each counting a point for his team. The first team to score three points wins.
Tech and FSU will meet in a semifinal match for the second time in three years. The Yellow Jackets outlasted the Seminoles, 3-2, in the 2022 championship in Panama City Beach, Fla., before falling to the Demon Deacons, 3-2, in the championship match.
Round of the day for the Yellow Jackets - Hiroshi Tai shoots 69
TECH LINEUP – Tech was led Sunday by sophomore Hiroshi Tai (Singapore), who was the only Yellow Jacket to break par after carding a 3-under-par 69. He finished in a tie for 12th place at even-par 213.
Lamprecht, who started the day tied for third and had played bogey-free golf for 36 holes, shook off a poor start in which he made bogey at 2 and a double-bogey at 5. He steadied himself with three birdies and nine pars over his next 12 holes before carding the bogey at 18.
He and senior Bartley Forrester (Gainesville, Ga.) came up big for Tech on the back nine, scoring a pair of birdies each when the Jackets had slipped into fourth place and were in danger of missing the cut. Lamprecht birdied 11 and 13, while Forrester made birdies at 12 and 13, providing the Yellow Jackets some breathing room. Forrester posted a 2-over-par 73 and scored his career-best finish at an ACC Championship, tying for eighth place at 2-under-par 211.
Freshman Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) delivered the fourth counting score for Tech Sunday, a 3-over-par 74, and finished in a tie for 30th place individually ay 218 (+5). Fellow freshman Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) shot 79 Sunday and finished 53rd individually.
Christo Lamprecht's post-round interview after round 3 at the ACC Championship
TEAM LEADERBOARD – Sunday’s round was played in chilly, windy and rainy conditions, with temperatures remaining in the low 50s and a steady, persistent drizzle battering the players throughout the day. Wake Forest scored the low round of the day with a 1-over-par 285.
North Carolina entered the championship as the top seed and won stroke play with a 10-under-par total of 842. Florida State, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest all finished six shots back at 4-under-par 848.
Virginia finished in fifth place, three shots below the cutline at 1-under-par 851, followed by Duke (854, +2) and Notre Dame (861, +9).
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – After five playoff holes could not break the tie, Wake Forest’s Michael Brennan and Florida State’s Frederik Kjettrup were declared co-medalists and will share the conference title after finishing 54 holes at 7-under-par 206.
Tech’s Christo Lamprecht and North Carolina’s Austin Greaser were tied with Brennan and Kjettrup coming to the final three holes, but Greaser fell back with a bogey at 16, and Lamprecht followed with a bogey at 18, and both players finished tied for third at 6-under-par 207.
FSU’s Luke Clanton took fifth place alone at 5-under-par 208, followed by Bryan Lee of Virginia and Sebastian Moss of Louisville at 4-under-par 209. Tech’s Bartley Forrester, NC State’s Joey Lenane and North Carolina’s Peter Fountain tie for eighth at 2-under-par 211.
Christo Lamprecht matched his career-best finish at the ACC Championship, a tie for third place. (photo by Nell Redmond/ACC)
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The ACC Championship is in the state of North Carolina for the second straight year, at Charlotte (N.C.) Country Club, completing a four-year rotation to different sites within the ACC footprint. Last year’s championship was contested at the Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst, N.C., following the 2023 championship at Shark’s Tooth Golf Course at Watersound Club in Panama City, Fla., and the 2021 championship at the Capital City Club’s Crabapple Course in Milton, Ga.
The ACC Championship is being conducted for the fourth time under a combination stroke play/match play format Friday through Monday. The championship uses the traditional 54-hole, stroke-play format from 1980 to 2019 (the championship was not held in 2020 due to COVID-19). All 12 competing teams (Miami, Pittsburgh and Syracuse do not sponsor men’s golf) play 54 holes of stroke play, 18 holes each Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the standard low four individual rounds counting toward the team’s daily score each round.
The top four teams after 54 holes are seeded in a match play bracket, with the semi-final matches and the championship match to take place Monday. Each match will be 18 holes and involve all five players from each team.
Tech and Wake Forest are tied for the most all-time ACC championships, with 19 each. Tech won last year’s title at the Country Club of North Carolina with a 3-2 victory over Wake in the championship match, and the Deacons won the 2022 title over the Jackets by the same score in Panama City Beach, Fla. The Yellow Jackets have captured 11 of the last 17 championships.
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of the development of Yellow Jackets that thrive academically at the Institute and compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes. To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
ABOUT GEORGIA TECH GOLF
Georgia Tech’s golf team is in its 29th year under head coach Bruce Heppler, having won 72 tournaments in his tenure. Heppler is the 10th-longest-tenured head coach in Division I men’s golf. The Yellow Jackets have won 19 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made 33 appearances in the NCAA Championship and been the national runner-up five times. Connect with Georgia Tech Golf on social media by liking their Facebook page, or following on X (@GTGolf) and Instagram. For more information on Tech golf, visit Ramblinwreck.com.
