Sept. 18, 2013
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech enters this week’s Tour Championship by Coca-Cola at East Lake Golf Club as one of only three schools with two alumni competing in the Tour’s season-ending event – Georgia Tech, with Matt Kuchar and Roberto Castro, Wake Forest with Webb Simpson and Bill Haas, and Illinois with Steve Stricker and D.A. Points.
With the top-30 finish comes the first invitation to the Masters Tournament for Roberto Castro, who will join Matt Kuchar in the field for the season’s first major championship next April.
Castro, 24th in the FedEx Cup points standings, is paired with Charl Schwartzel in Thursday’s opening round with a tee time of 12:10 p.m., while Kuchar, 5th in FedEx Cup points, and Stricker are paired together at 1:40 p.m. Since he is ranked in the top five in points, Kuchar can win the Tour’s $10 million grand prize if he wins the Tour Championship.
With just the one event remaining, Georgia Tech has an $800,000 lead in collective 2013 PGA Tour earnings over second-place Georgia, which has no alumni in the Tour Championship field. Georgia and UNLV, which has Adam Scott in the field, are the only other schools whose alumni have combined to earn in excess of $10 million this year. See Rivals Cup rankings. The SEC is the leading conference in earnings with more than $35 million, while the ACC is No. 2 with more than $33 million.
The Yellow Jackets surged past the $11-million mark at last week’s BMW Championship, with Castro, Kuchar, Bryce Molder and Nicholas Thompson all participating and taking home a check in the no-cut penultimate event. Tech began the FedEx Cup playoffs with six alumni competing, including Stewart Cink and Cameron Tringale advancing to the second event at the Deutsche Bank Championship.
Former Yellow Jackets have earned $11,071,756 so far in the 2013 season, accumulated as follows: Kuchar $5,020,008, Castro $1,927,165, Cink $1,052,712, Tringale $971,209, Thompson $959,434, Molder $816,922, Troy Matteson $245,090, Paul Haley II $73,006, and David Duval $6,210.
WEB.COM TOUR UPDATE
Chesson Hadley’s tie for fourth place at last weekend’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship elevated him to 14th place in the Web.com Tour finals, of which the 25 players who earn the most cumulative money in the four finals events will earn their PGA Tour cards for the 2013-14 season.
Hadley, a 2010 Tech graduate who won the Rex Hospital Open earlier in the summer, already has secured his Tour card for next season by virtue of his third-place finish in Web.com Tour earnings during the regular season.
Troy Matteson, who finished outside the PGA Tour’s top 125 in earning this season, is competing in the Web.com Tour finals in an effort to regain his card and stands 13th in earnings after his tie for 14th in the Nationwide event last weekend.
The last event in the Web.com Tour finals, the Web.com Tour Championship, will be held Oct. 23-29 at Dye’s Valley Course in Ponte Vedra, Fla.
ALBERTSON, SCHNIEDERJANS TABBED FOR WESTERN REFINING EVENT
Georgia Tech juniors Anders Albertson and Ollie Schniederjans have been invited to play in the Western Refining College All-America Golf Classic, which will be held Nov. 25-26 at El Paso Country Club in El Paso, Texas. The event is part of the city’s Sun Bowl lineup of events.
The elite 24-player field is made up of players who earned collegiate All-American honors in 2012-13; Albertson, the Atlantic Coast Conference champion, and Schniederjans each made the GCAA All-America third team after leading Tech to the semifinals of the NCAA Championship.
Albertson played in the 2012 event, tying for 12th place. Three Tech golfers have captured the title in the history of the event – David Duval (1991), Matt Kuchar (1999) and Nicholas Thompson (2004).
NEXT UP FOR TECH
With victories in its first two fall events, something that Georgia Tech has never done, the fourth-ranked Yellow Jackets have won by a combined 26 strokes and accumulated an aggregate score of 36-under-par. Ollie Schniederjans and Seth Reeves have captured medalist honors.
Tech returns to action Oct. 4-6 at the seventh annual Brickyard Collegiate, played at the Brickyard at Riverside Course in Macon, then finishes the fall schedule with its own United States Collegiate Championship Oct. 18-20 at The Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta.
Tech has a combined three victories in those two events – the Brickyard in 2011 and the USCC in 2010 and 2012. Each member of the current Yellow Jacket starting five has a top-10 individual finish at the Brickyard, and three of them have at least one top-10 at the USCC.
Career Finishes for Tech Five in Brickyard, USCC
Anders Albertson – Brickyard (T2, T14), USCC (T31, T41)
Bo Andrews – Brickyard (T21, T9, T50), USCC (T8, T9)
Seth Reeves – Brickyard (T16, T2, T35), USCC (T67, T26, T13)
Ollie Schniederjans – Brickyard (T6, 5), USCC (T26, T7)
Richard Werenski – Brickyard (T39, T9, T46), USCC (T4, T22, T46)
