Bowling Green, Ky. – Georgia Tech was unable to hold leads in its last two matches out, and top-seeded Virginia outlasted the No. 8-seeded Yellow Jackets in the other three to score a 3-0 victory over Tech Sunday in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Golf Championship.
Officially, freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden), sophomore Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) and redshirt junior Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands) lost their individual matches, while sophomore Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and junior Hiroshi Tai (Singapore) did not finish. Virginia moved on to Sunday afternoon’s semifinals to face No. 4 seed Clemson, who defeated SMU, 4-1.
Hansson and Kim, in the first two matches off the first tee, took their contests all the way to the 18th hole. Hansson trailed Paul Chang by two holes through 11, but the freshman battled back to win 12 and 15 with birdies to square the match. They remained tied until 18 with both players on the green looking at putts for eagle. Hansson missed his, but the Virginia senior dropped his to capture the Cavs’ first point.
Kim rallied from an early three-hole to square his match at the 10th, making birdie there. The contest remained tied until the Cavalier sophomore birdied the 17th. Both players made birdie at 18, but the result was officially deemed unfinished after Fontenot’s and Reuter’s matches both ended minutes earlier.
Fontenot won the first three holes of his match vs. Deven Patel, but the UVA senior whittled away the deficit and wound up with a 3&2 victory. Reuter trailed nearly his entire match with Ben James, falling 2&1, clinching the match for Virginia.
Tai held a 1-hole lead through seven holes against Bryan Lee in the final match, but Lee grabbed the lead for good at the 11th hole before the match ended, unfinished, at the 15th hole.
No. 2 seed North Carolina and No. 3 Florida State will face off in the other semifinal match Sunday. The Tar Heels downed Wake Forest, 3-2, while the Seminoles got by California, 3-1-1.
Quarterfinal Images by Andy Mead/YCJ
EVENT DETAILS
Atlantic Coast Conference Championship
- Dates: April 24-28 (54 holes of stroke play, low 4 of 5 scores count for team score each day, top 8 teams advance to match play)
- Venue: The Club at Olde Stone, Bowling Green, Ky. (par 72, 7,331 yards)
- Participating teams (15): Florida State (9), North Carolina (10), Virginia (12), Duke (19), Louisville (24), Georgia Tech (25), SMU (30), Notre Dame (38), Stanford (40), Wake Forest (46), California (53), Clemson (56), NC State (63), Boston College (118), Virginia Tech (194)
- Tech appearances (last appearance): 46th (last in 2024)
- Best finish: 19 titles (most recent in 2023)
- Individual titles: 10 (most recent, Anders Albertson in 2015)
- Schedule (all times Central Daylight Time):
- Sunday – Semifinal matches (following semifinals)
- Monday – Championship match (10 a.m.)
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.
