Georgia Tech coach Bruce Heppler had a two-word greeting for his star player as he headed to the scoring tent after completing his round Monday at the NCAA golf championships.
“Playing tomorrow,” Heppler told Ollie Schniederjans, his smile and tone indicating his relief.
Starting Monday in fifth place and needing to stay within the top eight to advance to the match-play portion of the tournament, the Jackets gave up two shots to drop from 1 under for the tournament to 1 over but hung onto its fifth-place spot.
The Jackets will play Oklahoma State on Tuesday morning in the quarterfinal round. If they advance, they’ll play the Stanford-Illinois winner later in the day. Stanford dominated stroke play, finishing at 13 under, nine shots ahead of second-place teams Alabama and LSU.
“They just need a chance,” Heppler said of his team. “You just want to get in the eight and give yourself a chance, because anything can happen.”
Schniederjans, ranked second in the country, came up short in his bid for the individual championship, falling in the third hole of a playoff with Stanford’s Cameron Wilson. Schniederjans shot a 2-under 68 in the round and finished at 6 under, making the playoff when Wilson bogeyed the 18th hole.
Both parred the first two playoff holes. On the third, Schniederjans put his tee shot on the par-5 17th hole in the deep rough while Wilson found the light rough on the right. Schniederjans punched out successfully and was on the green in three shots, but missed a long birdie putt. That opened the door for Wilson, ranked No. 4 in the country, to make a birdie putt to win.
“We’ve got some matches coming up,” Schniederjans told the Golf Channel. “This will all be fine if we win some matches. Winning individually is really cool but the team is more important to me.”
Tech is pursuing its first national championship, which would be just the second NCAA title in school history, not counting the wire-service championships won by the football team. This is the fourth time in the past five years the Jackets have reached match play. A year ago, Tech fell in the semifinals to eventual champion Alabama. With three seniors and two juniors, the fourth-seeded Jackets have a team with perhaps as much talent and experience as Heppler has had in his 19 years at Tech. Tech has already won six tournaments this season.
Seth Reeves said the experience last year of playing Alabama and then seeing the Crimson Tide win it all gave the team confidence for this season.
“At that point now, we just have to trust our experience, trust our ability and see what happens,” said Reeves, who finished in a tie for sixth at 4 under, closing with a 2-under 68.
Tech was the only team of the four state teams in the 30-team field to advance to match play. After starting the day in 18th place at 11 over, Georgia moved into a tie for 11th place at 10 over, five shots out of the final spot. UGA’s 3-under 277 was its best round of the tournament by nine shots. The Bulldogs entered the tournament ranked No. 6 but missed match play for the third year in a row.
“At least we came out and played better (Monday), so at least that leaves a little bit better taste in your mouth, but at the same time, you come out here to win. You don’t come out here to get moral victories,” coach Chris Haack said. “We’ve just got to get better.”
Georgia State, making its first NCAA finals appearance since 2007, finished 22nd at 23 over. Kennesaw State, led by freshman Teremoana Beaucousin (who finished in a tie for 20th at 1 under), took 26th. The Panthers completed a season in which they won three of their final five tournaments and finished second in a fourth.
“We can do better,” Georgia State coach Joe Inman said. “So I want to pat ’em on the back and I want to say ‘Great job,’ but we’ve got more in us.”
