Sept. 21, 2012
Alpharetta, Ga. – Georgia Tech, ranked 4th in the pre-season, will host the annual PING/Golfweek Preview Invitational, which runs Sunday through Tuesday, at the Capital City Club Crabapple in Alpharetta, which will be the site of next spring’s NCAA Men’s Division I Championship.
Live Scoring, Tee Times, Results | Directions to Capital City Club Crabapple
Fourteen of the 15 teams at this year’s Preview are listed among the Golfweek’s pre-season top 25 in the nation, including Alabama (No. 1), Arkansas (7), California (2), Chattanooga (24), Florida State (16), Georgia (17), Kent State (13), New Mexico (18), San Diego State, Texas (3), Texas A&M (9), UCLA (5), UNLV (15) and Washington (6). The NCAA Championship will be held at Crabapple May 28-June 2, 2013. The Capital City Club Crabapple course will play to a length of 7,246 yards and a par of 70.
Admission is free all three days of the Preview. Tee times begin at 9 a.m. Sunday and Monday, and 8:30 a.m. for Tuesday’s final round. Live scoring will be available at www.golfstatresults.com.
Since its inception in 1989, the Preview has brought together 15 prospective contenders for the NCAA title at the venue for that year’s Division I championship. It is co-sponsored by PING and Golfweek magazine.
“The golf course is fairly straightforward,” said Tech head coach Bruce Heppler. “We’ve played it a number of times knowing these events would be here. We were out there last Thursday, and it’s perfect. There’s no rain in the forecast, so the greens should get firm and fast. The club is committed to the NCAa Championship and this event, so it should be fantastic.”
Tech’s starting five for the Preview will be juniors Bo Andrews and Seth Reeves, sophomores Ollie Schniederjans and Anders Albertson, and freshman Michael Hines, who will be making his collegiate debut. The Yellow Jackets are looking to bounce back from a disappointing opening weekend at the Carpet Capital Collegiate, where they tied for 11th place after posting a 301 score in the first round.
“The Carpet Capital didn’t have much to do with their preparation. We didn’t respond well when things went poorly the first day,” said Heppler. “The second and third rounds were fairly competitive. Sometimes, you just try too hard, and I think we might have been guilty of that. We just need to go out and have fun.
“Obviously, this is going to be a challenge with 15 of the best teams in the country coming to the site of the NCAA Championship. The competition is really the golf course and yourself in a lot of ways, so you just keep sticking your nose in there and get it right.”
Schniederjans, who has won the team’s qualifying tournament for both events this fall, paced the Yellow Jackets at the Carpet Capital, tying for 19th place after rounds of 74-73-72. Albertson, Tech’s only returning All-ACC performer, tied for 40th after posting rounds of 73-78-72. Andrews tied for 51st, Reeves tied for 76th.
Hines, an all-state performer at Kell High School, gets his first shot at collegiate action after rising as high at 62nd in the national junior rankings.
