Pebble Beach, Calif. – Georgia Tech’s 6th-ranked golf team finished off a dominant performance over two days at Cypress Point Golf Club by shutting out 5th-ranked Duke, 5-1, Tuesday in the championship match of the Cypress Point Classic.
The Yellow Jackets, seeded No. 2 behind Duke, lost only one individual match in the two-day event against three teams ranked 33rd or higher nationally. In the championship match, which featured six singles matches as the format, three of the Jackets finished off their opponents by the 14th hole.
Junior Noah Norton (Chico, Calif.), who went out first for Tech Tuesday, set the tone for the day with a 5 and 4 victory over Blue Devil senior Steven Dilisio. After Duke’s Adrien Pendaries scored a 5 and 4 victory over Tech sophomore Connor Howe (Ogden, Utah) in the No. 5 match, redshirt sophomore Ben Smith (Novi, Mich) routed junior QiWen Wong, 6 and 4, to get Tech its second point.
Senior Andy Ogletree (Little Rock, Miss.), the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, downed sophomore Quinn Riley, again by a 5 and 4 score, before senior Luke Schniederjans (Powder Springs, Ga.) defeated Duke senior Chandler Eaton, 3 and 2, to earn the Jackets’ clinching point.
Unlike the previous day’s competition, all matches were played to their conclusions. Senior Tyler Strafaci (Davie, Fla.), playing the Jackets’ anchor match, prevailed in the closest contest of the day, 2 and 1 over junior Evan Katz, to close out the match.
It was a gratifying result and a thrilling finish to the fall season for the Yellow Jackets, who won three of their four events. The exception came 10 days earlier when Tech finished 10th in the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational, while watching the Blue Devils capture the title on their home course.
Ogletree and Smith won every match they played, teaming up to win their fourball and foursomes matches Monday before earning singles victories for the Jackets Tuesday.
Third-seed UCLA captured a 4-2 victory over host and No. 4 seed Stanford in the third-place match, while sixth-seed Illinois routed No. 8 Alabama, 5-1, in the fifth-fifth-place match, and seventh-seed California beat No. 5 Southern California, 5.5-0.5 in the seventh-place match.