Pinehurst, N.C. – Saturday’s third and final round of stroke play at the Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Golf Championship was suspended due to inclement weather in the vicinity, with play scheduled to resume at 7:30 a.m. Sunday at the Country Club of North Carolina.
The third round will be completed, and the top four teams on the leaderboard will advance to the match play portion of the competition. Semifinal matches will commence following the conclusion of stroke play, with the two winners facing off in the championship match Monday morning at 9 a.m. as originally scheduled. The ACC individual champion will still be crowned at the conclusion of the third round of stroke play.
Duke, Virginia and Louisville, who began the round in fourth, fifth and sixth place, respectively, as well as the No. 7-8-9 teams North Carolina, NC State and Notre Dame, had begun their rounds when play was halted at 8:28 a.m. Those golfers will resume their rounds from the point play was halted.
Tech, Wake Forest and Florida State, the top three teams paired together for round 3, as well as the bottom three teams Clemson, Boston College and Virginia Tech, were minutes from teeing off when play was stopped. Those teams will begin their rounds at 7:30 a.m. from the first and 10th tees.
Match play semifinals will now have a split-tee format with the No. 1 versus No. 4 match starting on the first hole, with No. 2 versus No. 3 going off simultaneously, starting on hole No. 10.
At the time of suspension Saturday, the Yellow Jackets (-13) remained two strokes ahead of Wake Forest (-11), followed by Duke (-5) and Florida State (-4) as the top four teams. Virginia (-2), Louisville (+1) and North Carolina (+2) are all within six strokes of fourth place.
Michael Brennan of Wake Forest (-9), Jiri Zuska of Louisville (-6) and Hiroshi Tai of Georgia Tech hold the top three positions in the race for medalist honors.
Under the stroke-play/match-play format, Tech has finished fifth and second, respectively, the last two years. The Jackets won their semifinal match over Florida State in 2022 and lost, 3-2, to Wake Forest in the championship match.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The ACC Championship is being contested in the state of North Carolina for the first time since 2019, when Georgia Tech won its most recent title at the Old North State Club in New London, N.C., which has hosted the championship 22 times. This is the eighth time that Pinehurst has played host to the ACC Men’s Golf Championship and the second time at the Country Club of North Carolina, which first hosted in 1966. Last year’s event was held at Shark’s Tooth Golf Course at Watersound Club in Panama City, Fla., preceded by the 2021 championship at the Capital City Club’s Crabapple Course in Milton, Ga. Next year’s championship will be held at the Charlotte (N.C.) Country Club.
The course plays to a par of 72 and measures 7,301 yards for the ACC Championship, which is being conducted for the third time under a combination stroke play/match play format. The championship used the traditional 54-hole, stroke-play format from 1980 to 2019 (the championship was not held in 2020 due to COVID-19). All 12 competing teams (Miami, Pittsburgh and Syracuse do not sponsor men’s golf) play 54 holes of stroke play, with the standard low four individual rounds counting toward the team’s daily score each round. The top four teams after 54 holes are seeded in a match play bracket, with the semifinal matches to take place Sunday, and the championship match Monday. Each match will be 18 holes and involve all five players from each team. The format is similar to the way the NCAA Championship has been conducted every year since 2009.
BROADCAST INFORMATION – Sunday’s semifinal matches and Monday’s championship match will be streamed live on the ACC Network Extra platform, available on the ESPN app.
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets 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 28th year under head coach Bruce Heppler, winning 70 tournaments in his tenure. The Yellow Jackets have won 18 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made 29 appearances in the NCAA Championship and been the national runner-up four 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.
