Las Vegas, Nev. – Andy Ogletree shot a 1-under-par 71 Tuesday to complete his second straight top-10 individual finish, but No. 4 Georgia Tech posted a 7-over-par closing round of 295 Tuesday and plummeted to a sixth-place finish at the Southern Highlands Collegiate golf tournament.
TECH LINEUP – Ogletree played the front nine 5-under-par, but made four bogeys with no birdies on the back side in posting his third consecutive 71 in the tournament. The junior from Little Rock, Miss., tied for ninth place at 3-under-par 213 and has been the Jackets’ top finisher in each of their three spring events.
A similar fate befell the rest of the Jackets, who racked up 14 birdies on the front nine, but only three on the back, losing eight shots to par. Tyler Strafaci (So., Davie, Fla.) closed with an even-par 72, freshman Connor Howe (Ogden, Utah) shot 74 and Luke Schniederjans (Powder Springs, Ga.) carded a 78 for the Yellow Jackets’ other counting scores. Noah Norton (Chico, Calif.), who began the day tied for fourth place with Schniederjans, did not count after shooting 81.
Schniederjans and Strafaci finished the tournament tied for 24th place at 217 (+1), while Norton tied for 37th at 220 (+4).
TEAM LEADERBOARD – No. 11 Oklahoma, who shot 6-under-par 282 Tuesday, and No. 8 Texas, with a 9-under-par 279, battled throughout the back nine for the team crown. The Sooners pulled out the victory on the final hole, finishing at 14-under-par 850, with the Longhorns a stroke back at 13-under-par 851.
Stanford, which began the day one shot behind Tech in second place, posted an even-par round Tuesday and finished third at 10-under-par 854. No. 18 Texas Tech (-4 Tuesday) finished fourth at 8-under 856, followed by No. 15 California (-5 Tuesday) at 7-under 857, and the Yellow Jackets in sixth at 4-under 860.
UNLV and TCU also finished the tournament under par, tying for seventh at 863 (-1).
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Texas’ Cole Hammer carded an 8-under-par 64 Tuesday to catch UNLV’s Jack Trent for a share of the individual title, both players finishing at 10-under-par 206. Trent won medalist honors in a sudden death playoff, making birdie on the third playoff hole.
Stanford’s Brandon Wu, with a 70 Tuesday, finished two strokes back at 208 (-8).
California’s Collin Morikawa and the Longhorns’ Parker Coody tied for fourth place at 209 (-7), followed by Illinois’ Michael Feagles (210) and Oklahoma’s Quade Cummins (211) and Thomas Johnson (212). Andy Ogletree was tied for ninth place with four other players at 213 (-3).
COACH BRUCE HEPPLER SAYS – “Unfortunately, we didn’t have a very good finish to the event. We just didn’t play well after a pretty positive start to the day. Andy continues to play very solid golf with him leading the team for all three spring events.”
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – Georgia Tech made its 16th appearance in the Southern Highlands Collegiate and first since 2014. The 54-hole event is played at the Southern Highlands Golf Club, a 7,374-yard, par-72 layout. The four low scores for each team are counted each round for the team total, and individual ties will be broken by a sudden-death playoff.
For the first time, the individual champion received a sponsor’s exemption to the PGA Tour’s Shriners Hospital for Children Open, which will take place Oct. 3-6 at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas.
Eight of the 15 teams in the field are ranked among the nation’s top 50 in the Golfstat rankings – Auburn (17), California (11), Florida, Georgia Tech (4), Illinois, Oklahoma (6), Pepperdine (13), Southern California (3), Stanford (38), TCU, Texas (10), Texas Tech, UCF, UCLA and host UNLV.
Georgia Tech has won the event twice, in 2001 and 2002. Four Yellow Jackets, all of whom have competed on the PGA Tour, have captured medalist honors, beginning in 1992 when Stewart Cink and David Duval shared the title. Troy Matteson won a share of the title in 2002 with Florida’s Camilo Villegas, and Cameron Tringale win the tournament outright in 2009.