Georgia Tech coach Bruce Heppler said his team likely wouldn’t change its approach for the match-play portion of the NCAA men’s golf championship at the Capital City Club’s Crabapple Course.
The Yellow Jackets completed three rounds of stroke play Thursday with a team score of 10 under. They finished six shots behind California. The top eight teams advanced to match play, which begins Friday. In match play, the players on paired teams go head-to-head. The player that wins the most holes in an 18-hole round earns his team a point. The team that wins the most points advances. The second round will be Saturday, and the championship match will be Sunday.
“I’m a believer that if you beat somebody in stroke play, rarely are you going to lose your match,” Heppler said.
Tech lost to TCU in a match-play event, 3 1/2-2 1/2, at the Crabapple Course in April. Anders Albertson and Seth Reeves posted wins in that match.
Tech was beaten in the first round of NCAA match play by Augusta State in 2010 and 2011.
Bulldogs out: Georgia failed to advance to the match-play portion after shooting 1 over and finishing eight strokes behind the eighth-place teams. The Bulldogs finished the tournament 10 over, tied for 19th.
The Bulldogs started Thursday’s third and final round of stroke play nine shots behind eighth-place Texas A&M. Georgia was one of the first three teams out Thursday, but couldn’t take advantage of what has been better scoring conditions in the mornings this week. They were paced by Joey Garber, who finished the tournament 1 over.
“They hit the ball well, but you’ve got to hit some 20-footers, some 30-footers and have a few things go your way, and it just didn’t seem like those things happened for us a whole lot,” Georgia coach Chris Haack said.
Odd fact: In the four years since the NCAA championship adopted the stroke-play/match-play format, no individual champ has played on the squad that survived match play to take the team title.
Blooming for Dogwood: Several players competing in the NCAA men's golf championship are scheduled to participate in the Dogwood Invitational at Druid Hills, which begins July 26.
Among the players competing this week are Tech’s Ollie Schniederjans, Albertson and Reeves. From Georgia, Joey Garber and Keith Mitchell are in the field, along with Alabama’s Cory Whitsett and Trey Mullinax, LSU’s Andrew Presley, Curtis Thompson, Smylie Kaufman and Stewart Jolly, Auburn’s Michael Johnson, South Carolina’s Caleb Sturgeon, North Florida’s M.J. Maguire, South Alabama’s Tyler Klava and FSU’s Hank Lebioda.
There are players on the teams that are competing this week who weren’t selected to play, but will play in the Dogwood.
Busy schedule: Six players competing in the NCAA championships are scheduled to stick around or come back for Monday's U.S. Open sectional qualifying tournament at Hawks Ridge in Ball Ground.
The sectional, which is 36 holes of stroke play, is the last round of qualifying before the U.S. Open at Merion, July 13-16.
Among those scheduled to compete in the 51-person field are Tech’s Bo Andrews, Auburn’s Dominic Bozzelli, New Mexico’s Gavin Green, California’s Brandon Hagy and Michael Kim and Florida’s T.J. Vogel.
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