Georgia Tech golf qualifies for NCAA Tournament

Release from Georgia Tech Athletics:

Georgia Tech’s 10^th-ranked golf team, which earned an automatic qualification to the NCAA Championship by winning the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship two weeks ago, has been placed in the NCAA Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., Regional, to be played May 14-16 at The Farms Golf Club.

The Yellow Jackets are playing in an NCAA regional for the 18th straight year and for the 25th time in the 27 years the NCAA has used a regional qualifying format for its championship. They are part of a regional field that includes 13 teams and 10 individuals.

The Rancho Santa Fe Regional will play host to eight teams listed among the nation’s top 50 of the Golfstat rankings, including, in order of seed, No. 3 Arizona State, No. 10 Georgia Tech (ACC champion), No. 14 Oklahoma, No. 22 New Mexico, No. 27 Virginia, No. 34 Georgia, No. 39 East Tennessee State (Southern Conference champion), and No. 47 Mississippi. The rest of the rest of the field includes host San Diego, Idaho, St. Mary’s, Wichita State (Missouri Valley Conference champion) and Eastern Kentucky (Ohio Valley Conference champion).

Georgia Tech is No. 10 in this week’s Golfstat ranking and No. 10 in the Golfweek/Sagarin ratings. The Yellow Jackets won last week’s Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, their second consecutive victory this spring, coming against a field that included nine teams in the nation’s top 50. Tech also won the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate at Columbus, Ohio by 16 strokes over No. 28 SMU, and tied No. 25 Alabama for second place the week before at the Mason Rudolph Championship in Nashville, Tenn. This spring, Tech has two runs, two runner-up finishes, one fourth-place and one 10th-place showing. Six of Tech’s seven spring tournaments have featured at least eight teams which were ranked among the top 50 in the nation, against whom the Jackets have a 59-26-3 record this year. Tech’s schedule is ranked the eighth-most difficult in the nation according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Index.

HEAD COACH BRUCE HEPPLER SAYS – “We’re looking forward to playing in the NCAA Championship again. I’ve heard nothing but great things about the golf course. The face is all the regionals are a challenge, and you have to play well to advance. The guys are excited to see a different part of the country, and we should have a great week of practice.”