THE FLATS – Georgia Tech’s golf team, ranked No. 26 in the nation and looking to advance for the third straight year to match play, begins play in the NCAA Men’s Division I Men’s Golf Championship Friday morning at the Omni LaCosta Spa and Resort in Carlsbad, Calif.
It is the second of three years that the championship will be held at LaCosta, where the Yellow Jackets finished eighth after 72 holes of stroke play and advanced to the semifinals of match play, and junior Hiroshi Tai (Singapore) became Tech’s fourth national collegiate individual champion, winning the title by one stroke.
Tech has reached NCAA Championship Finals for the 34th time in program history, and the 33rd time since 1985, having advanced by finishing in fifth place at the NCAA Auburn Regional last week. Tai, after struggling for much of this spring, tied for seventh place individually to lead the Jackets.
Thirty teams and six individuals will compete over includes 54 holes of stroke play Friday through Sunday, after which the field will be cut to the top 15 teams and the top nine individuals not on those teams for the final 18 holes of stroke play, which will take place Monday. After Monday’s final round of stroke play, the NCAA individual champion will be crowned, and the top eight teams on the leaderboard will continue on to match play.
Quarterfinals and semifinals of match play will take place Tuesday, with the championship match set for Wednesday afternoon.
The 30-team field is composed of the top five teams advancing from each of the six NCAA regionals that took place May 12-14.
Stroke play for the first three rounds begins each day at 6:52 a.m. Pacific Daylight time. Pairings for the first two rounds of stroke play are based on seeding from the most recent Scoreboard rankings, and on leaderboard standing for rounds 3 and 4. The Yellow Jackets are the No. 20 seed, paired with No. 19 Texas Tech and No. 21 South Florida for the first two rounds, Friday beginning at 6:52 a.m. PDT from the first tee, and Saturday at 12:12 p.m. PDT from the 10th tee.
Defending NCAA individual champion Hiroshi Tai led Tech at the Auburn Regional with a T-7 finish. (photo by Stew Milne)
HOW TECH GOT HERE
Georgia Tech advanced through an NCAA regional for the sixth straight year, finishing fifth at the Auburn (Ala.) Regional, by five strokes over sixth-place SMU. Head coach Bruce Heppler’s team has one victory (Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational) from the fall on its resume this year, and one other top-5 finish, a tie for fourth at the Watersound Invitational in February, after which the Jackets achieved their highest national ranking this year (No. 12). Tech finished eighth at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship and lost to Virginia in the quarterfinals of match play.
Redshirt junior Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands) has been the Yellow Jackets top finisher in three of seven spring events, with freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden) leading Tech at Pauma Valley and at the ACC Championship. Sophomore Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) did so at the Ford Collegiate, and Tai delivered his top-10 finish at the Auburn Regional.
Tech has a 79-70-5 head-to-head record through the ACC Championship, needing to be at .500 or above to qualify for a berth in an NCAA Regional. The Jackets have competed against a demanding tournament schedule in 2024-25, with 72 percent of the teams they have faced ranking in the Scoreboard top 50.
TECH LINEUP
Tai, the defending NCAA individual champion, Kim and sophomore Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) are the three starters back from last year’s NCAA semifinal team along with junior Aidan Tran (Fresno, Calif.) who was Tech’s alternate player and had to step in for the Jackets in rounds 2, 3 and 4 of stroke play and their quarterfinal win over Illinois.
They lead a Tech lineup that also includes Reuter, who returned from redshirt year to be the Jackets’ highest-ranked player this year (No. 85) in the Scoreboard NCAA rankings, Hansson, a freshman ranked No. 128.
Reuter posted a runner-up finish at Olympia Fields and has two other top-10s, including a tie for fourth at the Watersound Invitational this spring. Hanson finished 13th at Pauma Valley and 14th at the ACC Championship.
Tai, a pre-season All-American by Golfweek magazine and Golf Channel who competed in the Masters in April, had three top-20 finishes this fall and is ranked No. 176 in the NCAA Scoreboard rankings following his T-7 at Auburn. The junior won twice as a freshman prior to his NCAA Championship.
Fontenot (No. 216 in the Scoreboard rankings) has a top finish of 30th place at Watersound, while Kim, ranked No. 286, tied for 10th at the Ford Collegiate, the best finish of his career to date, and 18th at the Auburn Regional.
TECH IN THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP
Georgia Tech has reached the NCAA Championship finals 33 times since 1985 (34 times in program history), which is the fifth most in that time period behind Oklahoma State (38), Arizona State (36), Florida (36) and Texas (36).
Tech has posted 18 top-8 finishes in the NCAA Championship, 13 of those since Bruce Heppler became the head coach.
The Yellow Jackets have qualified for match play six times since the advent of the stroke-play/match-play format in 2009, finishing third in stroke play in 2010, second in 2011, second in 2013, fifth in 2014, tied for fifth in 2023 and eighth in 2024.
Tech lost to the eventual champion four times in its six appearances in match play, most recently in the championship match against Florida (3-1) in 2023. Tech fell to Augusta State by the score of 3-2 in the quarterfinals in 2010 and 2011 and to Alabama (3-0-2) in the 2013 semifinals.
Tech has been the runner-up in the NCAA Championship five times (1993, 2000, 2002 and 2005 before the introduction of match play, and again in 2023). Only Oklahoma State, which has 18, and Texas (6) have more.
In 1993 and 2002, the Yellow Jackets led after 54 holes, but finished second by one shot to Florida in 1993, and by four shots to Minnesota in 2002.
In 2000, the Yellow Jackets rallied to tie Oklahoma State after 72 holes, but lost to the Cowboys on the first hole of a playoff. Tech and OSU matched the lowest 72-hole team score in NCAA Championship history (36-under-par 1,116) at the Grand National Lake Course in Opelika, Ala. In 2005, Tech finished 11 shots behind Georgia, and seven shots ahead of third-place Washington.
Four Tech players have won national collegiate championships. Hiroshi Tai captured the title in 2024 in Carlsbad, Calif., and Troy Matteson lifted the trophy in 2002 at Ohio State. Watts Gunn (1927) and Charlie Yates (1934) won national titles under a match play format before the NCAA took sponsorship of the championship in 1939.
TECH AND NCAA MATCH PLAY
The 2009 NCAA Championship featured a new twist with the team champion determined via match play. The top eight teams after 54 holes of stroke play advance to a match play tournament format.
The NCAA added a fourth round of stroke play in 2016 for the top 15 teams and nine individuals not on those teams, after which the national individual champion and the top eight teams for match play are determined.
Match play is a format that Tech head coach Bruce Heppler has supported vigorously. Under Heppler, Georgia Tech finished in the top eight of the NCAA Finals seven times in 10 tries under the 72-hole, stroke-play format.
Tech is one of six teams (Oklahoma State 9, Illinois 9, Texas 7, Vanderbilt 7, Oklahoma 6 are the others) to have advanced to match play six or more times in the 16-year history of the stroke play/match play format.
EVENT DETAILS
NCAA Men’s Division I Golf Championship
- Dates: May 23-28 (72 holes of stroke play, low 4 of 5 scores count for team score each day, to determine individual champion; top 8 teams seeded for match play brackets to determine team champion)
- Venue: Omni LaCosta Resort & Spa, Carlsbad, Calif. (par 72, 7,548 yards)
- Participating teams (in order of seeding): Auburn, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Texas, Arizona State, Oklahoma, Florida, Florida State, Virginia, Texas A&M, Illinois, UCLA, Vanderbilt, BYU, South Carolina, Pepperdine, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas Tech, Georgia Tech, South Florida, Colorado, UNLV, Purdue, San Diego, Wake Forest, New Mexico, Troy, California, Augusta
- Tech appearances (last appearance): 34th (2024)
- Best finish: runner-up (1993, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2023)
- Individual titles: 4 (Watts Gunn 1927, Charlie Yates 1934, Troy Matteson 2002, Hiroshi Tai 2024)
- Schedule (all times Eastern Daylight Time):
- Friday – Stroke play round 1, 9:30 a.m.
- Saturday – Stroke play round 2, 9:30 a.m.
- Sunday – Stroke play round 3, 9:30 a.m.
- Monday – Stroke play round 4, 1:30 p.m.* (Golf Channel coverage, 6-10 p.m.)
- Tuesday – Quarterfinal matches, 9:50 a.m. (Golf Channel coverage, 1-3:30 p.m.)
- Tuesday – Semifinal matches, 4:15 p.m. (Golf Channel coverage, 6-10 p.m.)
- Wednesday – Championship match, 5:25 p.m. (Golf Channel coverage, 6-10 p.m.)
*individual champion crowned, top 8 teams seeded for match play
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.
