THE FLATS – Georgia Tech’s 14th-ranked golf team heads to the Panhandle of Florida to compete in its second spring event, the Watersound Invitational, which begins Monday morning at the Watersound Resort in Panama City Beach, Fla.
Twelve teams will compete over three days (Monday through Wednesday) at the Shark’s Tooth Golf Course. This year’s field features eight teams nationally ranked in the Top 50, including six of the Top 25 – No. 11 Vanderbilt, No. 12 UCLA, No. 14 Tech, No. 18 Mississippi State, No. 24 Alabama and No. 25 Notre Dame.
Tech, making its fifth appearance in this event, won the tournament in 2022 and has finished runner-up each of the last two years. Among Tech’s returning players, Hiroshi Tai (Singapore) turned in the highest finish last year, a tie for seventh place with a 6-under-par score of 210.
Head coach Bruce Heppler’s team, which has one victory (Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational) from the fall on its resume this year, opened the spring with a 10th-place finish (out of 20 teams) at the Amer Ari Intercollegiate in Hawai’i. Redshirt junior Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands) led the Yellow Jackets with a tie for 13th-place showing individually.
Tai, who won the NCAA individual championship last May in Carlsbad, Calif., and Reuter, who had a pair of top-10 finishes in the fall, are among five players who helped the Yellow Jackets advance to match play at the NCAA Championship each of the past two years. Also back are sophomores Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) and Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and junior Aidan Tran (Fresno, Calif.).
The tournament will utilize a split-tee start format each day, with competition beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern time Monday and Tuesday, and 8:30 a.m. EST Wednesday. The event began in 2021 as the Camp Creek Invitational and was the first tournament the Yellow Jackets played following the COVID-19 shutdown that scuttled the spring and fall seasons in 2020.
Benjamin Reuter at the Amer Ari Intercollegiate with a tie for 13th. (photo by Clyde Click)
TECH LINEUP – Reuter and Tai lead the five-man lineup for the Yellow Jackets in Panama City Beach, joined by Fontenot, Kim and freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden).
Reuter has been Tech’s top player all year thus far, posting a runner-up finish at Olympia Fields, a tie for 14th at the Ben Hogan and a tie for 15th at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational. He is ranked No. 28 in the Scoreboard NCAA rankings. Tai, listed on the Fall Watch List for the Fred Haskins Award and as a pre-season All-American by Golfweek magazine and Golf Channel, had three top-20 finishes this fall and is ranked No. 109 in the NCAA Scoreboard rankings. The junior from Singapore won twice as a freshman prior to his NCAA Championship.
Hanson, ranked No. 145 nationally, finished 28th at the Amer Ari Intercollegiate, while Fontenot (No. 107 in the Scoreboard rankings) was fourth at the East Lake Cup and 11th at the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational. Kim’s top finish in four fall events was 28th at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational.
Junior Aidan Tran (Fresno,Calif.) and freshman Didrik Ringvall Bengtsson (Stockholm, Sweden) is traveling with the team and will compete as an individual.
EVENT DETAILS
Watersound Invitational
- Dates: February 17-19 (stroke play, 54 holes)
- Format: 18 holes Monday (10 a.m. EST), Tuesday (9 a.m.) and Wednesday (7:30 a.m.), split-tee format
- Venue: Shark’s Tooth Golf Course (par 72, 7,246 yards)
- Participating teams (12): Alabama (24), Clemson, Florida State (33), Georgia Tech (14), Kentucky, Michigan State, Mississippi State (18), Navy, NC State (42), Notre Dame (25), UCLA (12), Vanderbilt (11)
- Tech appearances (last appearance): 4 (Tech finished t-2nd in 2024)
- Best finish: won championship in 2022
- Individual titles: none
Kale Fontenot has two top-20 finishes this year. (photo by Clyde Click)
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.
