Fort Worth, Texas – Sophomore Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) led Georgia Tech with rounds of 69-71 Monday and is tied for 11th place individually, while the 17th-ranked Yellow Jackets are 15-over-par and in ninth place after two rounds of the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational.
Coming off an impressive victory just a week ago at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational, Tech stood in fifth place after an 3-over-par 283 in the morning round, but fell back in the afternoon, posting a 12-over-par round of 292 at Colonial Country Club. The Jackets are 24 strokes off the pace set by 8th-ranked Oklahoma (-9).
Fontenot, at even-par 140, is one of just 16 players in the 75-player field to match or beat par over 36 holes Monday, and is six strokes behind David Ford of North Carolina and Daniel Bennett of Texas (-6).
The 15-team field includes four teams – Tech (No. 17 in the current Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches Poll), Auburn (1), Vanderbilt (4) and North Carolina (No. 16) – who advanced to match play at the NCAA Championship last May, and 12 teams that competed in stroke play. Also competing are eight other programs ranked among the top-25 in the Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches Poll.
The final round of the tournament is set to begin at 9 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday.
TECH LINEUP – Fontenot played steady golf throughout the long day Monday, recording three bogeys and a double-bogey against five birdies over 36 holes.
Junior Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands) posted an even-par 70 in the morning and a 73 in the afternoon, counting toward Tech’s total in both rounds, and is tied for 24th place at 3-over-par 143.
Sophomore Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) delivered a 1-over 71, and freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden) shot 73 to count toward the Jackets’ total in the opening round. Hanson and defending NCAA champion Hiroshi Tai (Singapore) posted counting 74s in the afternoon.
Benjamin Reuter continued to play solid golf with rounds of 70-73 Monday. (photo by Clyde Click)
TEAM LEADERBORD – No. 8 Oklahoma (-5), No. 11 Texas (-7), No. 1 Auburn (-6) and No. 16 North Carolina (-6) all went under par in round 2 Monday and occupy the top four positions on the leaderboard. The Sooners (551, -9) lead by two strokes over the Longhorns (553, -7), with the Tigers in third place at 556 (-4) and the Tar Heels in fourth at 558 (-2).
No. 2 Arizona State and No. 21 Georgia are tied for fifth place, but well back of the top four at 8-over-par 568.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Ford shot rounds of 69-65 for the Tar Heels, while Bennett did the reverse (65-69) for the Longhorns to tie for first at 6-under-par 134 after two rounds. Auburn teammates Brendan Valdes and Billy Davis are one stroke back at 135 (-5).
Oklahoma has four players under par for 36 holes and in the top 10 individually. Matthew Troutman is tied for fifth place with Texas’ Luke Potter at 137 (-3). Ryder Cowan, PJ Maybank and Drew Goodman are tied for seventh place with Georgia’s Camden Smith at 138 (-2).
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The Yellow Jackets are competing in the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational for the third time, having finished 12th in 2023 and eighth in 2023 in its previous two appearances. The event is played at Colonial Country Club, which annually hosts the Charles Schwab Challenge on the PGA Tour, plays to a par of 70 and measures 7,289 yards.
The Ben Hogan event includes 11 teams that competed in the 2024 NCAA Championship, including four that advanced to match play (Tech, Auburn, North Carolina and Vanderbilt). Twelve teams in the field are among the current Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches top-25. The complete field includes Arizona (13), Arizona State (2), Auburn (1), Georgia (21), Georgia Tech (17), North Carolina (16), Oklahoma (8), Oregon, Stanford (22), TCU, Texas (11), Texas A&M (19), Texas Tech (14), Vanderbilt (4) and Wake Forest.
The winner of the Ben Hogan Collegiate will receive an exemption into the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge.
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 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.
