April 9, 2016
Princeton, N.J. – Chris Petefish fired an even-par 71 Saturday to lead Georgia Tech, which shot 10-over-294 as a team and sits in seventh place at the weather-shortened Princeton Invitational, which is being contested at Springdale Golf Club in Princeton, N.J. The final 18 holes will be played Sunday.
Pairings and results via Golfstat
TECH LINEUP – Saturday’s round was played in intermittent drizzle with temperatures in the upper 30s. The Yellow Jackets never posted a big number Saturday on any of the holes at the 6,415-yard Springdale course – no double bogeys are worse – but struggled to get birdie, only 10 among the five competitors against 24 bogeys.
Petefish, a junior from Danville, Calif., had a pair of birdies and a pair of bogeys in his round. Tech also counted a 73 from sophomore Jacob Joiner (Leesburg, Ga.), a 74 from junior Vincent Whaley and a 76 from junior Michael Hines (Acworth, Ga.). Sophomore James Clark (Columbus, Ga.) did not count with a 77.
TEAM LEADERBOARD – Duke, the only other top-50 team in the field and ranked No. 20, opened a wide lead with a 10-under-par 274, with four Blue Devils atop the individual leaderboard. They lead by 12 strokes over Columbia, which shot 286 (+2). Fellow Ivy League teams Harvard and Yale are tied for third at 289 (+5), while host Princeton and Georgetown are tied for fifth place at 292 (+8). Tech is another two shots back in seventh place among the 15 teams in the field.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Jake Shuman shot 6-under-par 65 for Duke to take a three-stroke lead over teammates Alex Smalley and Max Greyserman, who both shot 68. The Blue Devils Alexander Matlari shot 69 and is tied for fourth with Kevin Jackson of Georgetown, Mert Selamet of Columbia and Rohan Ramnath of Harvard. Harrison Shih of Columbis and Kevin Li of Brown are tied for eighth place with 70s.
Petefish is in a group of six players tied for 10th place after his 71. Joiner’s 73 put him in a large group tied for 20th.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The 30th annual Princeton Invitational was shortened from 54 to 36 holes due to weather, and the teams played only 18 holes Saturday with the final round beginning at 8 a.m. Sunday. It is played at Springdale Golf Club, which plays to a par of 71 but measures just 6,415 yards.
Along with fellow Ivy League members Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Penn and Yale, Princeton welcomed a pair of teams ranked in the top 50 in the current Golfstat rankings, No. 20 Duke and No. 42 Georgia Tech, plus regional foes from Georgetown, Rider, Rutgers, Saint Joseph’s, Seton Hall and Temple.
Yale entered as defending champions and winners of five of the last six team titles, with Harvard’s win in 2014 as the only gap in the Bulldogs’ run. Temple’s Brandon Matthews can go for his third Princeton Invite title after tying with teammate Matt Teesdale in 2013 and winning outright a year ago.
