Auburn, Ala. – Georgia Tech’s golf team, seeded 5th at the NCAA Auburn Regional, posted a strong start with a 4-under-par 284 score Monday, buoyed by subpar rounds from Carson Kim (sophomore/Yorba Linda, Calif.), Hiroshi Tai (junior/Singapore) and Kale Fontenot (sophomore/Lafayette, La.), and stand in third place after the opening round at the Auburn University Club.
Kim shot a 2-under-par 70, while Tai and Fontenot each carded 1-under-par 71s for the Yellow Jackets, who are nine strokes behind top-seed and No. 1-ranked Auburn (-13), but are a single shot behind second-place UCLA and four ahead of sixth place. Benjamin Reuter (redshirt junior/Naarden, The Netherlands) delivered Tech’s fourth counting score Monday with an even-par 71.
Nine teams are ranked among the top 50 in the Scoreboard NCAA Rankings, with five of those, including the Yellow Jackets, ranked among the top 25. Auburn University Club (par 72, 7,607 yards) is hosting the regional, a site where Tech finished second in 2003 when NCAA regionals were held at three locations and had 27 teams each.
Round 2 begins at 7:30 a.m. Central Daylight time Tuesday with the final round set for the same time Wednesday. The Yellow Jackets are among the first groups off the first tee.
Thirteen teams will compete over includes 54 holes of stroke play to determine five teams that will advance to the NCAA Championship, which will take place May 23-28 at the Omni LaCosta Resort in Carlsbad, Calif. Auburn is one of six NCAA regionals taking place around the country Monday through Wednesday, with the top five teams after 54 holes advancing from each one to the NCAA Finals.
Carson Kim overcame a double-bogey and birdied five holes on the way to a 70.
TECH LINEUP – Tech, who started on the 10th hole Monday completed most of its round before play was halted at 1:46 p.m. local time. After a two-hour and 45-minute delay, Fontenot completed his final hole with a par, Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden) finished with a par at the last and a 73, and Reuter holed a three-foot birdie putt to finish off his 72.
The Yellow Jackets were at 8-under-par at one point in Monday’s round and four strokes clear of the field before disaster struck at the Auburn University Club’s No. 2 hole, a downhill par-4 measuring 446 yards with out of bounds on the right. Tech lost seven strokes on the hole after Kim, Tai and Fontenot all hit their tee shots in the back yards of adjacent residences, resulting in a pair of double-bogeys and a triple-bogey. Each of them rebounded, however, to record six birdies between them over the final seven holes to get back to red figures.
Kim’s 70 is good for a tie for sixth place at the end of 18 holes, while Tai and Fontenot are tied for 10th. Reuter is tied for 20th place.
LEADERBOARD SUMMARY – Defending national champion Auburn, who started on the first hole Monday, made most of its hay on the back nine, playing its final seven holes in 9-under-par to finish at 13-under 275 for the round. The Tigers are eight strokes up on the rest of the field, but only eight strokes separate the second- through ninth-place teams.
UCLA, the No. 3 seed, played steady throughout and posted a 5-under-par 283 to take second place, followed by the Yellow Jackets at 284 (-4) and SMU (286, -2). No. 2 seed Texas A&M, Purdue and New Mexico State are tied for fifth at 288 (even). TCU (+1) is in eighth place, and Little Rock (+3) is in ninth.
Individually, Auburn’s Brendan Valdes shot a 7-under-par 65 and grabbed a 2-stroke lead over his teammate Jackson Koivun, who shot 67 (-5) Monday. Aidan Thomas of New Mexico State and Claes Borregaard of Kennesaw State are tied for third at 68 (-4).
TECH IN NCAA REGIONAL COMPETITION
Georgia Tech has advanced through an NCAA regional 28 times in 33 tries, and all but four times since the NCAA went to a six-regional qualifying format in 2009. Tech has won seven regional tournaments overall, two of them shared titles, most recently in 2023, when the Yellow Jackets won in Salem, S.C.
The NCAA began using regional qualifying tournaments in 1989, first with the 81 teams split among three sites (27 teams each), then among six sites with either 13 or 14 teams each beginning in 2009. Since the NCAA went to six regional sites in 2009, Tech has advanced to the championship finals 11 times. No NCAA championship events were held in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Tech’s first four victories all occurred in 27-team regionals in 1991 (New Haven, Conn.), 1998 (Daufuskie Island, S.C.), 1999 (Providence, R.I.) and 2002 (Roswell, Ga., tied with Clemson). The 2014 win in Raleigh, the 2022 victory in Columbus and the 2023 win in Salem occurred in a 13- or 14-team field.
Four Georgia Tech players have won individual titles at NCAA regionals, but the most recent has been Troy Matteson in 2003, coincidentally at the Auburn University Club. The Yellow Jackets were the team runner-up in that regional.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
ABOUT GEORGIA TECH GOLF
Georgia Tech’s golf team is in its 30th year under head coach Bruce Heppler, winning 73 tournaments in his tenure. The Yellow Jackets have won 19 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made 33 appearances in the NCAA Championship and been the national runner-up five times. Follow Georgia Tech Golf on social media by liking their Facebook page, or following on X (@GTGolf) and Instagram. For more information on Tech golf, visit Ramblinwreck.com.
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Newest alumni have earned 83 bachelor’s degrees, 16 master’s degrees and one Ph.D.
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