Ollie Schniederjans’ golf career won’t end at the NCAA championship, but only commence. Later this summer, the recently graduated Georgia Tech All-American will play the U.S. and British opens, his prize for having finished last summer as the top-ranked amateur in the world. He will turn professional after the British.
His final collegiate event is not playing as expected, however. At the close of the second round Saturday at the Concession Golf Club, the player ranked No. 9 in the country was tied for 60th place at 6 over par, 13 shots out of the lead. The Yellow Jackets, ranked No. 12 in the country by Golfstat, were seventh at 12 over par. Georgia, ranked No. 33, followed an even-par round Friday with a round of 5 over, good for a tie for third with LSU. USC leads at 2 under.
“It’s been really frustrating,” said Schniederjans, who planned to play more aggressively Sunday. “I’ve hit a lot of good shots. My bad shots have been penal, and I haven’t scored well because I haven’t done what you’re supposed to do to score well.”
Tech coach Bruce Heppler called Schniederjans’ score “as high as he can shoot for two rounds.”
Both teams are in good shape to finish in the top 15 after Sunday’s third round to advance to the fourth round, after which the top eight teams will continue to match play. In their five trips to the NCAA tournament since match play was instituted for the 2009 championship, the Jackets have made match play four times, none victorious. The Bulldogs have two appearances in the match-play field in five NCAA berths; they won their most recent NCAA title in 2005.
“Just don’t count numbers,” Tech coach Bruce Heppler said of his plan for Sunday’s round. “Just shoot as low as you can.”
With undulating greens and length that measures 48 yards longer than Augusta National, Concession has taken a bite out of more than the Jackets. Four teams in the Golfstat top 11 — No. 3 Arizona State, No. 7 Stanford, No. 8 Texas Tech and No. 11 Oklahoma — occupy four of the bottom seven spots on the leaderboard. Schniederjans called it the toughest course the Jackets have played this season.
The Jackets have been scoring — they lead the tournament with 42 birdies — but have been sabotaging themselves with errant drives. Tech’s five-man lineup has 15 double bogeys and three triples. Vince Whaley demonstrated what can be done by avoiding mistakes. After an opening round with three double bogeys and one triple produced a 7-over 79, he steered clear of such trouble and fired the Jackets’ low round of the day Saturday, a 1-under 71.
His score was significantly improved, “but I didn’t really do anything a whole lot different,” Whaley said. “I just kind of played a little bit more safe in the spots that I struggled with (Friday).”
Playing in the afternoon heat, the Bulldogs executed that strategy almost flawlessly. Georgia limited itself to two double bogeys and one triple in a combined 90 holes of play Saturday. The Bulldogs have four double bogeys or higher through two rounds, the fewest in the field.
“We knew it’d be a tough afternoon, playing a lot firmer, a lot faster,” coach Chris Haack said. “I think we held it together pretty well up until right here at the very end — gave away a few — but they played really strong up until that point.”
Bulldogs junior Sepp Straka turned in a 2-under 70, Georgia’s best round of the day. Starting the round on the 10th hole, he finished with a par save at the par-4 ninth, chipping from about 40 feet to tap-in range.
Straka said that “we knew that, whenever we get in trouble, we should just get out of trouble and just take your medicine, take your bogey and walk on, because you’re going to make bogeys out here.”
Though a superstitious lot, the Bulldogs aren’t relying on any particular charms thus far.
“At regionals, we ate Denny’s the last two nights, and that worked pretty well for us,” Mookie DeMoss said, “but we didn’t feel too great after eating Denny’s two nights in a row. So we’re just going to get good meals in us and just do our best.”
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