Tech, Kennesaw, Southern capture conference titles
Three Georgia college golf teams won their conference tournaments to earn automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament, which begins this month with regional competition.
Georgia Tech won the ACC Championship, with Kennesaw State the Atlantic Sun champion and Georgia Southern taking the Southern Conference title. Augusta State and Georgia will join those three teams at regionals.
Six regionals will be played May 19-21, with the three eastern regionals scheduled for Florida, Virginia and Indiana. The NCAA Championship will be played May 31-June 5 in Stillwater, Okla., with Oklahoma State serving as host.
Augusta State is the No. 3 seed in Ocala, Fla., with Kennesaw and Georgia Southern also competing in that regional. Tech is the No. 1 seed n Radford, Va., with Georgia seeded second behind Oklahoma State in Boulder, Colo. The top five teams from each of the six regionals advance to the NCAA Championship.
Defending national champion Augusta State closed out its Spring schedule by tying for 3rd behind USC and UCLA in a tournament in Santa Cruz, Calif. The Jaguars were led by Augusta resident Patrick Reed, who tied for 2nd at 209, two strokes behind the medalist. Reed posted scores of 66-75-68.
Henrik Norlander tied for 9th for Augusta at 213, with Carter Newman of Evans T19 at 216.
The Jaguars were edged out by LSU in the Hootie’s at Bulls Bay event in South Carolina, with their 850 total one shot behind LSU’s winning score. Mitch Krywulycz led Augusta, tying for 3rd at 209. Reed was T7 at 211.
Augusta State got a good look at NCAA favorite Oklahoma State in the Jaguars’ annual tournament played the weekend before the Masters. Oklahoma State shot 16-under 848 at Forest Hills GC to win the event by one stroke over Tennessee, with Augusta well back in 6th at 871.
The Jaguars played two teams in the tournament, with the second team beating the starting five by six shots. Olle Bengston, playing with the second team, closed with back-to-back 67s to finish 2nd for Augusta at 209, five strokes behind Oklahoma State’s Kevin Tway. Krywulycz tied for 10th at 215, with Norlander 12th at 216.
Georgia completed a mostly disappointing Spring season with a 4th place showing in the SEC Championship at Sea Island GC. The Bulldogs shot 862, finishing 14 strokes behind Florida’s winning total.
Macon’s Russell Henley, who has struggled for most of his senior season, led the Bulldogs, tying for 6th at 212, three shots behind the medalist. Hudson Swafford was next for Georgia at 216, tying for 14th, with Thomasville’s Harris English T21 at 218. All three shot 69s in the final round on the Seaside course.
Georgia tied for 3rd in the Linger Longer Invitational at Reynolds Plantation, posting an 866 total to finish 20 shots behind Alabama, which took first by 18 strokes over Chattanooga. English tied for 7th at 214, with Henley T18 at 219 after an opening 77.
Georgia Tech won its third straight ACC Championship and fifth in six years, setting a tournament record with a 33-under 831 total in New London, N.C. The Yellow Jackets won by 20 strokes over runner-up Duke, with third place Clemson 30 shots behind Tech’s winning score.
Tech golfers went 1-2-3 in the tournament, led by Paul Haley, who took medalist honors at 10-under 206 with scores of 68-68-70. He edged out Kyle Scott, who shot 68-71-68 to take 2nd at 207. J.T. Griffin was 3rd at 209, shooting a 66 the final day. Acworth’s James White was the fourth Yellow Jacket in the top 10, tying for 8th at 213 highlighted by a closing 68.
The Yellow Jackets prepared for the ACC Championship with a small tournament they hosted at Golf Club of Georgia. Tech shot 9-under 567 to win the 36-hole event by 19 strokes, with the same three golfers who went 1-2-3 in the ACC finishing 1-2-3 in the same order.
Haley was medalist at 71-68—139, with Scott 2nd at 140 after back-to-back scores of 70. Griffin was 3rd at 69-72—141.
Several of Tech’s non-starters competed in an event in Jacksonville, Ala., with redshirt freshman Seth Reeves of Duluth sharing medalist honors at 3-under 213, firing a 66 in the final round.
Kennesaw won its conference tournament at Chateau Elan with three steady rounds of golf, shooting under par each day on the par 71 Chateau course. Kennesaw’s 845 total was nine strokes better than the runner-up team.
The Owls did not have to count a score higher than 73, and got solid efforts from all five starters, led by Jeff Karlsson, who earned medalist honors with scores of 67-69-71 for a 6-under 207 total.
Matt Nagy of Buena Vista shot 68-71-71—210 to tie for 2nd behind Karlsson, with the three other Kennesaw starters contributing two counting scores each. Duluth’s Benjamin Greene shot a final round 69 and tied for 24th along with teammate Jonathan Klotz of Columbus, who closed with a pair of 71s. Chad Wilson of Calhoun shot 73-72 the first two days and tied for 28th at 219.
Mercer was 4th in the tournament at 860, shooting 277 the final day. Hans Reimers tied for 2nd at 210, with fellow freshman Mookie DeMoss of Duluth shooting a 68 in the third round. Josh Cone of Thomasville closed with 70 and tied for 17th at 216.
Prior to its conference championship, Kennesaw State placed 6th and 5th in its final regular season events of the Spring.
The Owls tied for 6th in the Linger Longer Invitational at 878 led by Karlsson, who tied for 9th at 215. Nagy shot 69 the final day to tie for 18th at 219. Kennesaw was 5th in an event in Kannapolis, N.C, with Karlsson closing with scores of 66 and 68 to tie for 2nd at 4-under 209. Nagy opened with 67 and ended up T12 at 214.
Georgia Southern won the Southern Conference title by five strokes, shooting 3-under 861 at Florence (S.C.) CC. The Eagles were led by Lewis Gruber, who was 2nd individually at 208, one shot behind the medalist, and Logan Blondell, who placed 3rd at 212. Matt Deal, a senior from Statesboro, posted counting scores in all three rounds and tied for 25th at 222.
The Eagles trailed going to the final round, but shot a tournament best 282 that included Gruber’s 68 to win a three-way battle for the title.
In other state college golf news ….
Cochran’s Joe Young, a senior on the Georgia College team, earned medalist honors in a tournament in Greenwood, S.C. Young won by two with scores of 70-68—138. Teammate Billy Shida of Duluth tied for 6th at 141.
The Bobcats placed 4th in the Peach Belt Conference tournament at Savannah Quarters, with Shida taking 2nd individually at 214 after an opening round 66. He finished three shots behind the medalist.
Armstrong Atlantic took 3rd in the tournament, with three team members placing between 8th and 11th. Tyler Erickson of Warner Robins tied for 8th at 221, with Ridge Purcell of LaGrange 10th at 222 and Matt Motes of Augusta T11 at 223.