AUBURN, Ala. – Georgia Tech’s golf team is headed for the NCAA Championship Finals for the sixth straight year and for the 34th time in program history. Carson Kim (sophomore/Yorba Linda, Calif.) shot a 1-under-par 71 for Georgia Tech’s only subpar round Wednesday, and the Yellow Jackets posted a 6-over-par round of 294 but held their position to finish as the fifth and last advancing team from the NCAA Auburn Regional.
Host and top-ranked Auburn rolled to a 27-stroke victory at the Auburn University Club as seeding held nearly to form. No. 2 seed Texas A&M, No. 3 seed UCLA, No. 7 seed Purdue and the No. 5 seed Yellow Jackets move on to compete May 23-28 at the Omni LaCosta Resort in Carlsbad, Calif.
Individually, Hiroshi Tai (junior/Singapore) earned his second top-10 finish of the year, posting a closing 73 to tie for seventh place at 3-under-par 213.
Tech began the day in fifth place with a three-stroke edge over the Boilermakers, who shot 2-over-par 290. The Yellow Jackets, who started on the back nine, seemed to get the better of their playing partners (UCLA and Purdue) for the first nine holes which they played 4-under-par to get to even par and third place for the tournament. But the second nine holes became a slow slide as the Jackets posted just two birdies, one by Kale Fontenot (sophomore/Lafayette, La.) at No. 3 and the other by Kim at No. 8, to counter eight bogeys and a double-bogey to drop Tech back to 10-over-par for the tournament.
Meanwhile, SMU tried in vain to catch the Jackets, posting a 7-over-par score for the round and finishing five strokes shy. Tech also benefitted as New Mexico State, the third-place team after 36 holes, shot 23-over-par and dropped all the way back to eighth place.
TECH LINEUP – Kim played a splendid back (first) nine with no bogeys and three birdies, but could come up with only one more on the front nine while also carding three bogeys. He finished the tournament tied for 18th place individually at 218 (+2).
Tai also played a clean first nine with two birdies, but had a bogey and a double-bogey on the back before finishing with four straight pars. Freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden), redshirt junior Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands)and Fontenot each shot 75 Wednesday.
Hansson tied for 29th individually at 221 (+5), while Fontenot and Reuter both tied for 38th place at 224 (+8).
LEADERBOARD SUMMARY – Auburn, which finished 54 holes at 32-under-par 832, cruised to the second-largest margin of victory in NCAA regional tournament history. Four Tigers finished the regional tied for fifth or better.
Texas A&M was the only other team under par for Wednesday’s round and for the tournament, finishing second at 859 (-5). UCLA (870, +6), Purdue (873, +9) and Tech (874, +10) were bunched together for the final three spots to advance.
Jackson Koivun, the Tigers’ stellar sophomore, shot 67 Wednesday to complete a four-stroke victory at 12-under-par 204. UCLA’s Omar Morales and Kennesaw State’s Claes Borregaard tied for second place at 208 (-8). Auburn’s Carson Bacha (-7), Josiah Gilbert (-5) and Brendan Valdes (-5) rounded out the top five.