Alpharetta, Ga. – Christo Lamprecht, Connor Howe and Benjamin Reuter each fired 1-under-par 71s Saturday, and 13th-ranked Georgia Tech posted a 2-under-par total of 286, slipping to seventh place after 36 holes at the 15th Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate at the Golf Club of Georgia.
Sophomore Aidan Kramer, competing as part of Tech’s B team in the event, maintained his position as low Yellow Jacket in the tournament after also carding a 71 to finish 36 holes tied for eighth place. Tech’s B team matched its primary unit Saturday with a 286 and is tied for 12th place with Southern California.
The Yellow Jackets are 18 strokes off the pace of defending national champion Pepperdine entering Sunday’s final round.
TECH LINEUP – The Yellow Jackets reached 9-under-par through 12 holes in their second round Saturday, but limped home with seven bogeys and a pair of double bogeys over the final six holes. Ross Steelman and Bartley Forrester each shot 73 Saturday, one of them counting toward Tech’s team total.
Lamprecht (sophomore George, South Africa) and Reuter (freshman, Naarden, The Netherlands), who each shot 70 on Friday, are tied for 15th place individually at 3-under-par 141. Steelman (junior, Columbia, Mo.) is tied for 25th at 143 (-1), while Howe (junior, Ogden, Utah) is tied for 33rd at even-par 144, and Forrester (junior, Gainesville, Ga.) is tied for 42nd at 145 (+1).
On the B team, junior Andy Mao (Johns Creek, Ga.) led the way with a 3-under-par 69 Saturday, with Kramer’s 71 and 73s from senior Ben Smith (Novi, Mich.) and sophomore Adam Bratton (Newburgh, Ind.) counting.
Sophomore Christo Lamprecht is tied for 15th place after posting rounds of 70-71.
TEAM LEADERBOARD – Defending NCAA champ Pepperdine kept up its torrid pace Saturday with four players under par for the round, firing a second consecutive 13-under-par round of 275, taking a four-shot lead over No. 9 Texas A&M (9-under-par 279 Saturday). The Waves finished 36 holes at 26-under-par 550, and the Aggies at 22-under-par 554.
The Waves are on the cusp of breaking the 54-hole tournament scoring record, which is 836 (-28) by Georgia Tech in 2010.
No. 21 Tennessee (558, -18), No. 16 Wake Forest (559, -17) and No. 4 Stanford (561, -14) all posted double-digits under par Saturday and stand 3 through 5 on the leaderboard. No. 19 East Tennessee State is in sixth place at 563 (-13), followed by Georgia Tech at 568 (-8).
Virginia (570, -6), Duke (571, -5) and Clemson (572, -4) are the only other teams under par for 36 holes, sitting eighth through 10th.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Pepperdine’s Joe Highsmith (16-under-par 128) followed his opening 63 with a 65 Saturday and has a two-shot lead over Wake Forest’s Alex Fitzpatrick (14-under-par 130), who followed his opening 64 with a 66.
Highsmith can break the 54-hole scoring record for the tournament (201, 15-under-par by Derek Bard of Virginia in 2014) with an even-par round Sunday.
Karl Vilips of Stanford is along in fourth place at 134 (-10), followed by Walker Lee of Texas A&M at 137 (-7). Lee’s Aggie teammates William Paysse and Sam Bennett are tied for sixth at 138 (-6).
Georgia Tech’s Aidan Kramer is tied for eighth at 139 (-5) with Tennessee’s Spencer Cross and Tyler Johnson, Duke’s Ian Siebers and Pepperdine’s William Mouw.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate, formerly called the United States Collegiate Championship, is contested at the Yellow Jackets’ home club. The tournament is being played exclusively on the 7,092-yard, par 72 Lakeside Course, 18 holes each day through Sunday. The final round begins at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. Admission is free.
The event annually attracts one of the strongest fields in college golf, and this year it is as strong as ever with seven NCAA championship teams from last spring, including defending NCAA Champion Pepperdine, Clemson, East Tennessee State, TCU, Tennessee and Wake Forest as well as the Yellow Jackets.
The 15-team field includes 10 of the nation’s top 50 teams, according to the most recent rankings by Golfstat and the Golfweek/Sagarin Index. The complete field with Golfstat and Sagarin ranking in parentheses – Georgia Tech (13/15), Clemson (27/32), Colorado State, Duke, East Tennessee State (19/20), Pepperdine (17/11), Southern California, Stanford (4/4), Tennessee (21/17), Texas A&M (9/7), TCU (51/38), UCLA, Virginia (20/24), Wake Forest (16/13).
Among the individuals, the field includes the nation’s top-ranked individual in Virginia’s Chris Fosdick and 14 others ranked among the top 50 in the most recent Golfstat rankings.
All 10 Georgia Tech players are competing in two teams, with the primary team composed of the top five players, and a B team composed of the rest. The B team also is competing for a team score.
TECH’S GOLF CLUB OF GEORGIA COLLEGIATE HISTORY – Georgia Tech has won the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate twice in the event’s 14-year history, in 2010 and 2012. James White, who set tournament records for 18-hole score (62) and 54-hole score (204, broken in 2014), won medalist honors in 2010, while Ollie Schniederjans won it in 2013 for Tech’s only individual titles. Clemson, Oklahoma State, Southern California and Texas also have won twice. The Tigers captured the inaugural title in 2006 and again in 2009, the Longhorns won in 2014 and shared the title with Virginia in 2016, the Cowboys won in 2013 and 2017, and the Trojans in 2008 and 2019. The tournament was not played in the fall of 2020 due to COVID-19.
The Yellow Jackets finished 10th in 2019, and have finished out of the top five just three times in 14 years.
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets 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 27th year under head coach Bruce Heppler, winning 66 tournaments in his tenure. The Yellow Jackets have won 18 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made 29 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 (@GTGolf) and Instagram. For more information on Tech golf, visit Ramblinwreck.com.
