TEAM UPDATE – Georgia Tech earned an automatic invitation to the NCAA regional by winning the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship April 20-22 in New London, N.C. It was the 17th ACC title in program history, 12th under current head coach Bruce Heppler and the Yellow Jackets’ ninth in the last 13 years. The Jackets also accomplished winning the title without having a single individual finish in the top 10 – sophomores Luke Schniederjans and Tyler Strafaci tied for 12th. That had happened only once before in conference history.
Georgia Tech remains No. 4 in the latest Golfstat rankings and No. 8 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index after winning the ACC Championship. The Yellow Jackets also have a victory at the General James Hackler Championship this spring, along with a third-place finish at the Irish Creek Intercollegiate, a fifth-place finish at the Amer Ari Invitational in Hawai’i and fourth-place finishes at the Puerto Rico Classic and the Valspar Collegiate. Tech posted a pair of wins and a runner-up finish in four fall events.
Tech’s four tournament wins this year have broken a two-year victory drought for the program.
Tech owns a 113-16-4 overall win-loss record this year against a schedule ranked the 14th most difficult in the country, according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Index. That includes a 55-16-4 mark against top-50 teams. The Yellow Jackets have been remarkably consistent and balanced in its lineup, ranking third nationally in lowest dropped score (75.09), and only three individuals have finished outside the top 50 in nine tournaments in 2017-18.
TECH LINEUP – Georgia Tech has played the same six players in nearly every event this season with few exceptions, and all six are ranked between No. 49 and No. 103 in the latest Golfstat rankings – Noah Norton (49), Tyler Strafaci (53), Luke Schniederjans (65), Jacob Joiner (87), Chris Petefish (94) and Andy Ogletree (103). Among those, Petefish has the lone individual victory this year, that coming at the General Hackler Championship. They have 12 combined top-10 finishes and all six average between 71.52 and 72.89 strokes per round.
Norton, Petefish, Schniederjans and Strafaci all were named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference team.
Norton, a freshman from Chico Calif., leads the Yellow Jackets with four top-10 finishes, including a tie for second at the General Hackler Championship this spring, and is second on the team with a stroke average of 71.56. Strafaci, a sophomore from Davie, Fla., has the Jackets’ best stroke average at 71.52, with a pair of top-10 finishes and a tie for 12th at the ACC Championship. Schniederjans, a sophomore from Powder Springs, Ga., ranks third on Tech’s team with a 71.77 stroke average, has six top-20 finishes this year and also tied for 12th at the ACC Championship. Petefish, whose birdie on the 18th hole in the final round clinched the ACC title for the Yellow Jackets, is the team’s only tournament winner this year, having won the General Hackler.
Norton, who missed the Irish Creek event with a back injury, returned for the ACC Championship but struggled to a 43rd-place finish, yet still is the Jackets’ highest-ranked individual. Joiner was the odd man out for the ACC Championship and is again for the NCAA regional, as only five players can compete per team.
All five Tech individuals at the Valspar finished between 13th (Norton, Ogletree) and 31st place, four of the five placed between first and 22nd at the Hackler (Petefish, Norton, Ogletree, Schniederjans), and Norton, Petefish and Strafaci all tied for seventh at Puerto Rico. At Irish Creek, all five finished between 12th and 30th place. At the ACC Championshhip, Tech won despite having no player finish higher than 12th.
