Chapel Hill, N.C. – The third round of the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional golf tournament was called for the day Tuesday due to continued steady rains that impacted the playability of Finley Golf Club. The final round of the tournament will resume at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday.
All five Georgia Tech players had played at least one hole when play was halted, and the Yellow Jackets were 1-under-par for the round and tied for fifth place with Baylor at 11-under-par. East Tennessee State (-23), Clemson (-20) and North Carolina (-19) held the top three spots on the leaderboard.
The top five teams after the completion of 54 holes will advance to the NCAA Championship.
Play was suspended twice Tuesday morning due to ponding on the greens, once at 11:08 for 30 minutes and again at 11:47 a.m. when players were taken to the clubhouse. The round was suspended for the day at 2 p.m. with more rain expected throughout the afternoon.
Tech has made it through the NCAA regional round each of the last four years (the NCAA Championship and regionals were not conducted in 2020 due to COVID-19), and 27 times since the NCAA went to the regional qualifying format in 1989. Tech shared the regional title in 2022 in Columbus, Ohio and won the 2023 regional in Salem, S.C., by eight strokes. The Yellow Jackets are playing in an NCAA regional for the 26th straight year and for the 33rd time in the 35 years the NCAA has used a regional qualifying format for its championship.
Photos by Andy Mead
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – Eighty-one teams and 45 individuals are competing for spots in the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship finals in six regional qualifying tournaments. The top five teams and one individual from each regional will advance to the finals (30 teams and six individuals total), which will be conducted May 24-29 at the Omni LaCosta Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.
Each NCAA regional is a 54-hole, stroke-play event with 13 teams and 10 individuals, or 14 teams and five individuals, competing. Tech is part of a regional field that includes 13 teams and 10 individuals. The other regional sites and their top seeds are Tennessee at Austin, Texas (The University of Texas Golf Club), Auburn at Baton Rouge, La. (University Club), Arizona State at Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. (The Farms Golf Club). Florida State at Stanford, Calif. (Stanford Golf Course) and Vanderbilt at West Lafayette, Ind. (Birck Boilermaker Golf Course).
The Chapel Hill Regional is being played at Finley Golf Club on the campus of the University of North Carolina. The course is set up to play to a par 70 over 7,084 yards.
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of the development of Yellow Jackets that thrive academically at the Institute and 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 29th year under head coach Bruce Heppler, having won 72 tournaments in his tenure. Heppler is the 10th-longest-tenured head coach in Division I men’s golf. The Yellow Jackets have won 19 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made 33 appearances in the NCAA Championship and been the national runner-up five 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.
