A diploma in his hand, nearly all of his glorious college career behind him and a pro career beckoning, Georgia Tech golfer Ollie Schniederjans is ready for the final chapter.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Schniederjans said. “It’s nice to be done with school, and I think I’m ready for this, and the team is at the best place they’ve been at.”
Tech and Georgia will be among the 30 teams to conclude the college golf season at the NCAA championship at the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. Play begins Friday.
Tech is there for the 28th time and 27th since 1985. The Bulldogs are hunting for their third national championship. Both qualified by rallying to finish in the top five of the San Diego regional in mid-May. Tech, which has nine top-eight finishes in its past 13 appearances, is pursuing its first national championship and the second NCAA title in any sport in school history.
Tech, ranked No. 12 by Golfstat, will send a lineup with three of its five entrants playing in the NCAA for the first time. Georgia is ranked No. 33 after an up-and-down season.
“We don’t go there for second,” Tech senior Anders Albertson said. “Our team is different than last year. We were a lot older, but kind of like the whole thing goes, just because the names on the bags change, the big one doesn’t, and the expectations of our program are to compete at the highest level.”
That said, the best chances for either the Bulldogs or Jackets to tote home hardware likely belong in the hands of Schniederjans and Georgia junior Lee McCoy to win the individual title. McCoy is ranked No. 5 in the country and Schniederjans is No. 9. Ranked No. 39, Albertson has an outside shot.
“My goal is to win the tournament,” McCoy said. “I want to win the stroke-play individual championship. At the end of the day, that’s going to do more to help my team get into match play.”
McCoy has shaved nearly two strokes off his scoring average as a junior (69.66 from 71.59) and tied the school single-season record with four wins this season. Speaking Tuesday, McCoy felt particularly comfortable with the state of his game. With school out, the team went to Florida to acclimate to the weather conditions and wind. The Bulldogs were guests of Georgia great Ryuji Imada, a member of the 1999 national championship team and a touring professional.
McCoy said he hadn’t been striking the ball well and went out early to the driving range with assistant coach Jim Douglas “and found something that worked out. Went out today and hit 18 greens. Kind of a quick little turnaround.”
In a skins game with his teammates and Imada, McCoy said he shot a 64 and “won a little bit of Monopoly money. It was a good day.”
An individual title would close out a singular career for Schniederjans and undoubtedly peel back some of the frustration of a senior season that hasn’t gone quite as hoped. After winning five tournaments as a junior and entertaining the idea of turning professional, Schniederjans chose to return for his senior season in part to gain the experience of playing with a target on his back and also to help lead a team that lost three seniors.
But Schniederjans has been tugged by his impending pro career while trying to tighten his game and play as a marked man. The year has had its bumps, including a 17-over-par finish at the Valspar Collegiate Invitational, an event he won as a junior at 12 under.
“Probably too much stuff going on, not enough time to work on what I wanted to work on sometimes,” Schniederjans said.
Still, he has a 70.03 stroke average and nine top-10 and six top-five finishes in 11 events. Schniederjans rated his game as “OK” and added that his ball striking, which had been the least consistent part of his play, has been improving.
“I feel realistically like there’s a pretty good chance for me to play well,” he said.
All 30 teams will play 54 holes, concluding Sunday. The top 15 teams and top nine individuals not on an advancing team will play a fourth round Monday to determine the individual champion and the eight teams to advance to match play. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played Tuesday, followed by the final Wednesday. The Golf Channel will begin live coverage Monday.
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