Scottsdale, Ariz. – Georgia Tech, seeded No. 10 and fresh off a victory at the Columbus Regional last week, is set to begin competition in the NCAA Championship finals for the 31st time in program history, looking for the program’s first national championship, when the Yellow Jackets tee off Friday morning at Grayhawk Golf Club.
Head coach Bruce Heppler’s 27th Tech team returns three starters from a team that finished 15th in last year’s NCAA Championship, the first of three straight years the championship will be held in Scottsdale. The Yellow Jackets won twice in the fall and entered the spring ranked No. 20, adding three more tournament wins this spring to rise to No. 11 in the Golfstat rankings and No. 10 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index. Since the NCAA added match play to the format to determine its champion in 2009, the Yellow Jackets have advanced to match play four times and looks to return for the first time since 2014.
The Yellow Jackets bring three All-ACC performers – sophomore Christo Lamprecht (George, South Africa), junior Bartley Forrester (Gainesville, Ga.) and junior Connor Howe (Ogden, Utah) – to Arizona along with transfer Ross Steelman (Columbia, Mo.)who is ranked among the nation’s top 100 players and has six top-10 finishes, and rapidly improving freshman Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands).
Tech tees off at 3:47 p.m. Eastern time Friday afternoon (hole No. 1) and 10:27 a.m. Saturday morning (10th hole), paired with No. 11 seed Texas A&M and No. 12 seed Stanford for the first two rounds. Tee times and pairings for the remaining rounds of stroke play will be determined by team position on the leaderboard. Thirty teams will play 54 holes Friday through Sunday, with the field cut to 15 for the final round of stroke play Monday, after which the individual champion will be crowned. The top eight teams after 72 holes will advance to a match play bracket to determine the team champion on Wednesday.
Oklahoma, the nation’s top-ranked team and champion of the Norman Regional on its home course last week, is the top seed at the NCAA Championship, followed by Oklahoma State, with whom Tech shared the Columbus (Ohio) Regional title. Vanderbilt, the Palm Beach (Fla.) Regional champion, is the third seed, followed by Arizona State, winner of the Stockton (Calif.) Regional, North Carolina, runner-up at the New Haven (Conn.) Regional, Pepperdine, runner-up at the Bryan (Texas) Regional, Texas, who finished fourth in Norman, Texas Tech, the third-place team in New Haven, and Florida, the third-place team in Palm Beach Gardens.
The other regional champions were No. 15 seed Wake Forest (New Haven) and No. 20 seed Arizona (Bryan).
HOW THE JACKETS GOT HERE – With four starters back from last year and adding two key contributors who have formed the core of the 2021-22 team, Georgia Tech has won five times in 11 tournaments this year, including a share of the title at the NCAA Columbus Regional a week ago. Tech won the Maui Jim Intercollegiate and the Hamptons Intercollegiate in the fall, and added titles in the Watersound Invitational and The Calusa Cup this spring, elevating the Yellow Jackets to No. 11 in the Golfstat rankings and to No. 10 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index.
At the ACC Championship, Tech finished second in stroke play and advanced to the championship match, where they fell to Wake Forest, 3-2. The final and deciding individual match went to the 21st hole, where freshman Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands) lost to Alex Fitzpatrick.
Four Tech players are listed among the nation’s top 110 players according to the Golfstat. At No. 26, sophomore Christo Lamprecht (George, South Africa) holds the highest Golfstat ranking among the Yellow Jackets with six top-10 finishes this year, including a tie for third at the ACC Championship. Junior Bartley Forrester (Gainesville, Ga.), ranked No. 107, captured a share of medalist honors at The Calusa Cup and has four top-10 finishes. Junior Ross Steelman (Columbia, Mo.) has six top-10s, four of them this spring, including a runner-up performance at the Columbus Regional, and is ranked No. 109. Junior Connor Howe (Ogden, Utah), ranked No. 84, has three top-10s in 2021-22, including a tie for seventh at Columbus. Each of the Jackets in Arizona except sixth-man Ben Smith (Novi, Mich.) have at least one top-10 finish this year, all but Reuter and Smith have at least three.
All five Tech starters at the NCAA Championship have stroke averages of 71.63 or better, led by Lamprecht’s 69.97, and Smith has averaged 72.19 over 21 rounds.
Tech owns a 28-21-1 mark head-to-head against the nation’s top 25 teams, according to Golfstat (28-19-1 according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Index), and is 61-24-4 against teams in the top 50, according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Index.
TECH’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY – Georgia Tech has reached the NCAA Championship finals 30 times since 1985 (31 times in program history), which is tied for fifth most in that time period behind Oklahoma State (36), Arizona State (34), Florida (33) and Texas (33), each of whom are in the field in Scottsdale. Tech has posted nine top-8 finishes in the last 15 tries.
The Yellow Jackets have qualified for match play four times since the advent of the stroke-play/match-play format in 2009, finishing third in 2010, second in 2011, second in 2013, fifth in 2014. Coincidentally, Tech last advanced to match play (2014) the same year it last captured a regional title.
Tech lost to the eventual champion three times in its four appearances in match play – Augusta State by the score of 3-2 in the quarterfinals in 2010 and 2011 and to Alabama (3-0-2) in 2013.
Tech has been the runner-up in the NCAA Championship four times (1993, 2000, 2002 and 2005, all before the introduction of match play). Only Oklahoma State, which has 18, Texas (6) and Purdue (5) have more.
Three Tech players have won national collegiate championships. Troy Matteson did it most recently in 2002 at Ohio State. Watts Gunn (1927) and Charlie Yates (1934) won national collegiate titles under a match play format before the NCAA took sponsorship of the championship in 1939.
CHAMPIONSHIP INFORMATION/FORMAT – Finals play consists of three days of stroke play on Friday, May 27 thru Sunday, May 31 (54 holes), after which the top 15 teams and nine individuals not on an advancing team will be determined. That is followed by a final day of 18 holes of stroke play on Monday, May 30 to determine the top eight teams that will advance to match play as well as the 72-hole individual champion. The team national champion will be determined by a match-play format that will consist of quarterfinals and semifinals conducted on Tuesday, May 31, followed by finals on Wednesday, June 1.
The entire championship is conducted on the Raptor course at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., which measures 7,289 yards and plays to a par of 70. This is the second of three straight years that the Grayhawk will host the NCAA Championship.
- Friday, May 27 – First round of stroke play competition (Tech begins at 3:47 p.m. ET)
- Saturday, May 28 – Second round of stroke play competition (Tech begins at 10:27 a.m. ET)
- Sunday, May 29 – Third round of stroke play competition (tee times based on 36-hole scores)
- Monday, May 30 – Final round of stroke play competition (tee times based on 54-hole scores)
- Tuesday, May 31 – Quarterfinals and semifinals of team match play
- Wednesday, June 1 – Championship match to determine team champion
TELEVISION – Golf Channel will air live coverage of the final round of stroke play Monday, May 30 (5-9 p.m. Eastern time), the team quarterfinals (12-3:30 p.m. ET) and semifinals (5-9 p.m. ET) on Tuesday May 31, and the team championship match Wednesday, June 1 (5-9 p.m. ET). Encore presentations will be aired at 10 p.m. each day.
TECH LINEUP – Christo Lamprecht, Bartley Forrester and Connor Howe have been a part of Georgia Tech’s starting lineup for all 11 tournaments in 2021-22 and will lead the Yellow Jackets in the NCAA Championship along with Ross Steelman and Benjamin Reuter. Steelman missed one event, The Goodwin in late March, due to mononucleosis, but has been a part of the starting five for each of the other 10 tournaments. Reuter and Smith split manning the No. 5 spot for most of the events this year before claiming it for the two post-season events.
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the A-T Fund’s Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes, and the Support The Swarm Fund, created to give fans an opportunity to help Georgia Tech athletics maintain its recent momentum through the financial challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic! To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
ABOUT GEORGIA TECH GOLF
Georgia Tech’s golf team has completed 26 years under head coach Bruce Heppler, winning 69 tournaments in his tenure. The Yellow Jackets have won 18 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made 30 appearances in the NCAA Championship and been the national runner-up four times. Connect with Georgia Tech Golf on social media by liking their Facebook page, or following on Twitter (@GTGolf) and Instagram. For more information on Tech golf, visit Ramblinwreck.com.
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