CHAPEL HILL, Nc. – Seniors Christo Lamprecht and Bartley Forrester each fired 4-under-par 66 Wednesday, leading Georgia Tech to a 7-under-par round of 273 to finish in fourth place at the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional. The Yellow Jackets thus advance to the NCAA Championship for the fifth straight year and will make their 32nd all-time appearance in the championship when they strike the first tee shot next Friday in Carlsbad, Calif.
Clemson, East Tennessee State, North Carolina, Tech and Baylor are the five teams to advance from the Chapel Hill Regional.
After beginning the final round Tuesday tied for fifth place with Long Beach State, and having the round interrupted by weather until this morning, Tech’s veteran trio of Lamprecht, Forrester and sophomore Hiroshi Tai played near flawless golf on their second nine holes (Tech started the round at the 10th hole) to make sure the Yellow Jackets advanced.
They gave the Jackets some cushion by playing their first nine holes in 5-under-par combined. The trio posted three more birdies in the first three holes on the second nine, but then the Jackets stumbled after making three bogeys on the par-3 fifth, briefly falling out of the top five.
Tech went bogey-free from there, however, with Forrester making birdie at the sixth, Lamprecht following with a birdie at 7, and then freshman Kale Fontenot adding another at the final hole. The Jackets were two shots clear of Baylor and Alabama, who battled down to the last hole for the final spot. The Bears came away with the berth when the Crimson Tide made bogey at the final hole.
Tech has made it through the NCAA regional round each of the last five years (the NCAA Championship and regionals were not conducted in 2020 due to COVID-19), and 28 times since the NCAA went to the regional qualifying format in 1989.
TECH LINEUP – Forrester has played his best golf in the post-season, having finished in the top 10 at the ACC Championship and now at the Chapel Hill Regional. The senior from Gainesville, Ga., made just one bogey Wednesday while putting an eagle and three birdies on his card. He finished in a tie for eighth place individually at 8-under-par 202.
Tai also tied for eighth place after carding a 1-under-par 69 Wednesday, giving the sophomore from Singapore three rounds in the 60s (65-68-69) this week and his third top-10 finish of the spring. Lamprecht (George, South Africa) birdied seven holes in his round, six of them on par-4 holes at the par-70 Finley Golf Club, on the way to his best round of the regional and a tie for 21st place at 208 (-2).
Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) delivered the fourth counting score for Tech Wednesday, a 2-over-par 72, while fellow freshman Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) shot 75. Fontenot tied for 53rd place at 216 (+6), while Kim tied for 63rd at 220 (+10).
TEAM LEADERBOARD – A year after losing a playoff for the final spot to advance in a regional it hosted, Clemson rebounded in a big way, coming from behind to overtake East Tennessee State on the final nine holes to win the team title. The Tigers shot 6-under-par 274 Wednesday and finished the tournament at 25-under-par 815, one stroke better than the Buccaneers (816, -24).
Host and top seed North Carolina took third place at 820 (-20), followed by Tech at 823 (-17) and Baylor at 825 (-15).
Alabama (826, -14) and Long Beach State (827, -13) took turns occupying fifth place Wednesday but saw their seasons come to a close.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – North Carolina’s Austin Greaser won medalist honors with a 13-under-par score of 197, posting rounds of 66-65-66 on his home course. The senior held off NC State’s Nick Mathews, who birdied three of his last six holes in an attempt to catch Greaser but came up short at 12-under-par 198, tied with Baylor’s Johnny Keefer.
As the highest finisher not on an advancing team, Mathews earned a tee time at the NCAA Championship as an individual.
Charlie Forster of Long Beach State took solo fourth place with an 11-under-par score of 199, followed by Riley Lewis of Loyola Marymount and Calahan Keever of Clemson, who tied for fifth place at 10-under-par 200.
Clemson’s Jonathan Nielson (201, -9) finished in seventh place alone. Forrester and Tai of Georgia Tech tied for eighth place (202, -8) with Alabama’s Canon Claycomb and ETSU’s Algot Kleen.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – Eighty-one teams and 45 individuals competed for spots in the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship finals in six regional qualifying tournaments. The top five teams and one individual from each regional advance to the finals (30 teams and six individuals total), which will be conducted May 24-29 at the Omni LaCosta Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.
Each NCAA regional is a 54-hole, stroke-play event with 13 teams and 10 individuals, or 14 teams and five individuals, competing. The field at Chapel Hill included 13 teams and 10 individuals. The other regional sites and their top seeds are Tennessee at Austin, Texas (The University of Texas Golf Club), Auburn at Baton Rouge, La. (University Club), Arizona State at Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. (The Farms Golf Club). Florida State at Stanford, Calif. (Stanford Golf Course) and Vanderbilt at West Lafayette, Ind. (Birck Boilermaker Golf Course).
The Chapel Hill Regional was played at Finley Golf Club on the campus of the University of North Carolina, set up to play to a par 70 over 7,084 yards.