ATLANTA (Oct. 11) — Georgia Tech’s golf team, which moved into the top spot in the Golfweek computer ranking over the weekend, will play in the Iron Duke Golf Classic Sunday-Monday at the par 72, 7,100-yard Duke University Golf Course in Durham, N.C. The field, which consists of 18 teams, will play 36 holes Sunday and 18 Monday to decide the championship.
“The Duke Golf Course will be the site of the 2001 NCAA Championship, so this tournament will be a boost to our club to get an exposure on it a year in advance,” said head coach Bruce Heppler, who is in his fifth year at Tech. “We will see another strong field that includes a hot Northwestern team, so it should be a great two days of golf. We will hold qualifying Monday and Wednesday of this week and hopefully our guys will continue to have strong competition to see who travels.”
The tournament should pit the No. 1 & 2 players in collegiate golf as Luke Donald of Northwestern is currently the top-ranked golfer in the Golfweek ranking, while Tech junior Bryce Molder (Conway, Ark.) is No. 2. Donald has won two tournaments this year and seven out of his last 11, while Molder is coming off of a 12-under-par 68-68-68204 victory at the Carpet Capital Collegiate. Molder, who placed tied for 14th in the Golfweek Preview Invitational, is averaging an even 70 strokes per round this year with four of his six rounds in the 60s this year.
Senior Matt Kuchar (Lake Mary, Fla.) is currently 14th in the Golfweek ranking as he also tied for 14th at the Golfweek Preview Invitational and added an 8th-place finish at the Carpet Capital Collegiate. He is averaging 71.50 strokes per round this year and is moving back to form after averaging 73.25 a year ago. With a pair of top-20 finishes this year, he now finished in the top 20 in 27 of his 38 collegiate tournaments.
The Jackets have two more golfers in the top 40 of the Golfweek ranking as sophomore Kris Mikkelsen (Woodstock, Ga.) is No. 36 and redshirt-freshman Troy Matteson (Austin, Texas) is No. 37. Mikkelsen tied for21st at the Carpet Capital Collegiate after shooting a 1-over 217, while Matteson tied for 26th at the Golfweek Preview Invitational and 17th at the Carpet Capital Collegiate.
Tech, which was in second place in the Golfweek ranking to start the week, moved to first after Northwestern finished second in the Windon Memorial to flip-flop positions with the Jackets.
Tech ends its fall slate at the Golf World Invitational in Hilton Head Island, S.C., Nov. 4-6.
