Aiken, S.C. – Georgia Tech senior golfer Tyler Strafaci captured his second amateur title in the span of seven days Saturday, firing a closing 1-under-par 69 to overtake the 54-hole leader and win the Palmetto Amateur.
The Davie, Fla., senior, who became the first Georgia Tech player to win the North & South Amateur last week at Pinehurst, N.C., became the first Yellow Jacket to etch his name on this trophy as well, finishing with a 72-hole total of 270 (-10) over the par-70 Palmetto Golf Club.
Saturday, Strafaci began the day one stroke behind Caleb Surratt of Indian Trail, N.C., who fell back with a final-round 74. He held off the rest of the field by firing a 2-under 34 on the incoming nine holes, making birdie on 13 and 14 and then parring the final four holes.
For the week, Strafaci led the field in par-5 scoring at 8-under-par, and tied for third in most par-breaking holes with 19.
Meanwhile, his Tech teammate, Bartley Forrester, had his strongest showing of the summer by tying for seventh place, getting into contention with a third-round 65 and finishing 72 holes at 6-under-par 274. A redshirt sophomore from Gainesville, Ga., Forrester tied Strafaci with 19 par-breaking holes in the tournament. Forrester won the Puerto Rico Classic back in February while competing for the Yellow Jackets.
This weekend’s victory continues a strong 2020 for Strafaci, who rose to No. 15 in the Scratch Players Amateur ranking and No. 63 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking following his North & South triumph, and earned a spot in the U.S. Amateur Championship in August. The senior will return to Tech to compete in 2020-21 after the NCAA ruled to allow spring sports student-athletes an extra year of eligibility after Covid-19 ended spring sports prematurely. He was a finalist for the Byron Nelson Award and was named a PING honorable mention All-American selection last spring by the Golf Coaches Association of America, finishing the spring ranked No. 52 in both Golfstat and the Golfweek/Sagarin Index. He posted three top-10 finishes last year, two of those in the top-5, and led the Yellow Jackets in subpar rounds (10) while posting the team’s third-best stroke average (71.94) and second-best head-to-head winning percentage (.746).
He has made the All-Atlantic Coast Conference team twice in his career (no team was chosen this spring) and has earned PING All-East Region honors by the GCAA three times. He made the ACC All-Academic golf team in 2018 and 2019 (no team selected in 2020) and was named an All-America Scholar in 2019 by the GCAA.