Feb. 16, 2013
THE FLATS – Following a fourth-place finish at the Amer Ari Invitational to open the spring schedule last week, Georgia Tech heads off the mainland again this weekend to play in the Puerto Rico Classic, beginning Sunday at Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.
Live scoring | Coach Heppler interview
The 54-hole event, played at the Westin Rio Mar Resort’s River Course, traditionally attracts many of the nation’s top 25 teams, and Tech is participating for the 18th straight year. This year’s tournament features No. 6 Alabama, No. 10 Georgia, No. 16 SMU, No. 21 Clemson, No. 29 Northwestern, No. 35 North Carolina and No. 44 Oklahoma, as well as ACC foes NC State and Virginia Tech in the 15-team field.
The Yellow Jackets played consistently well over the 54 holes at last week’s Amer Ari Invitational, posting an 11-under-par score and led by sophomore Anders Albertson, who shot 5-under-par 211 and tied for 10th place. No. 4 UCLA and No. 7 Washington finished ahead of the Jackets, who finished ahead of No. 9 USC and No. 2 Texas.
None of the teams in the field of primarily West Coast teams are in the Puerto Rico event, which the Yellow Jackets have won four times, most recently in 2005.
Because of the short period in between the team’s first two events this spring, head coach Bruce Heppler did not conduct a qualifying tournament to determine his travel squad. Instead, he will send juniors Bo Andrews (Raleigh, N.C.) and Richard Werenski (South Hadley, Mass.), and sophomores Albertson (Woodstock, Ga.) and Ollie Schniederjans (Powder Springs, Ga.), all of whom competed at the Amer Ari Invitational. Junior Seth Reeves (Duluth, Ga.), who did not qualify for the trip to Hawai’i, will make his spring debut.
Andrews, Schniederjans and Werenski each tied for 34th at the Amer Ari event with even-par scores of 216.
Schniederjans, Tech’s highest ranked player in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index (45th) and Albertson are tied atop the Tech scoring average chart at 71.8 and have combined for seven top-20 finishes and three top-10s. Andrews, fourth on the team at 72.9, has two top-20 finishes. Reeves, who had a top-5 and a top-10 finish in the fall, has a 73.8 average, and Weresnki stands at 74.0.
