Kohala Coast, Hawai’i – Freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden) shot a 6-under-par 66 Thursday and is tied for 9th place individually, while 12th-ranked Georgia Tech posted a 10-under-par team total of 278 and is in 11th place following the opening round of the Amer Ari Intercollegiate.
Beginning its quest to return to the NCAA Championship at season’s end, Tech is 16 strokes off the pace set by No. 9 Oklahoma State with 36 holes to play. No. 3 Auburn, the defending NCAA champion, is the only top-50 team behind the Yellow Jackets, who reached 15-under-par at one point placed three players under par in the opening round.
Twenty teams are competing over three days (Thursday through Saturday) at the Mauna Lani Resort’s North Course in the 34th edition of the event, which has attracted an increasingly strong field over the years. This year’s field features nine teams nationally ranked in the Top 25, including six of the Top 10.
Round 2 begins at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time Friday with a shotgun start.
Benjamin Reuter is tied for 36th place after firing a 69 (-3). (photo by Clyde Click)
TECH LINEUP – Hansson played a near flawless round Thursday, recording seven birdies against one bogey on the Mauna Lani Resort’s North course. Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands), Tech’s highest-ranked player, birdied six of his first nine holes, but ran into trouble on the front side of the course withy three bogeys and a double bogey and finishes at 3-under-par 69, tied for 36th place.
Sophomore Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) was the third Tech player under par, posting a 1-under-par 71, and defending NCAA individual champion Hiroshi Tai (Singapore) delivered the Jackets’ fourth counting score with an even-par 72.
Sophomore Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and freshman Didrik Ringvall Bengtsson (Stockholm, Sweden), who is competing as an individual, each shot 76 (+4).
TEAM LEADERBOARD – Oklahoma State counted four players under par, including individual leader Preston Stout’s 10-under-par 62, to post a 26-under-par total of 262, two shots ahead of No. 2 Arizona State (264, -24). No. 6 North Carolina and No. 38 Oregon are tied for third place at 268 (-20).
Nineteen of the 20 teams in the field are under par after the opening round.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Stout has a one-stroke lead over Oregon’s Eric Doyle, who posted a 9-uunder-par 63. Stout’s Cowboy teammate Ethan Fang and Arizona State’s Michael Mjaaseth are tied for third place at 64 (-8).
Four players are tied for fifth at 65 (-7), and 73 of the 123 players in the field are under par.
EVENT DETAILS
Amer Ari Intercollegiate
- Dates: February 6-8 (stroke play, 54 holes)
- Format: 18 holes Thursday, Friday and Saturday (shotgun start at 7:30 a.m. local time each day)
- Venue: Mauna Lani Golf Club (par 72, 6,900 yards)
- Participating teams (20): Arizona State, Auburn, Georgia Tech, Hawai’i, Hawai’i-Hilo, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Oregon State, Osaka Gakuin (Japan), Pacific, Pepperdine, San Jose State, Stanford, Texas, Texas Tech, UC Davis, UCLA, Waseda (Japan), Washington
- Tech appearances (last year): 26 (Tech finished 6th of 20 teams, Bartley Forrester T-8 in 2024)
- Championships: 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006
- Individual titles: Carlton Forrester (1999), Matt Kuchar (1999, 2000), Bryce Molder (2000), Troy Matteson (2002), Cameron Tringale (2006)
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
ABOUT GEORGIA TECH GOLF
Georgia Tech’s golf team is in its 30th year under head coach Bruce Heppler, winning 73 tournaments in his tenure. 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. Follow Georgia Tech Golf on social media by liking their Facebook page, or following on X (@GTGolf) and Instagram. For more information on Tech golf, visit Ramblinwreck.com.
