Staff Reports
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech’s No. 25-ranked golf team has received an at-large bid to the NCAA Men’s Division I Golf Regionals and has been made the No. 5 seed at the Auburn Regional, which will be played May 12-14 at the Auburn University Club in Auburn, Ala.
The NCAA announced on Wednesday afternoon all 81 teams and 45 individuals who will competing for spots in the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship finals, and the fields for each of the six regional qualifying tournaments, all taking place May 12-14 at different venues. The top five teams from each regional will advance to the finals, which will be conducted May 23-28 at the Omni LaCosta Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. Of the 81 teams, 30 were automatic qualifiers by winning their conference championships, and the other 51 earned at-large bids.
The Auburn regional in which Tech will compete has 13 teams, including the No. 1-ranked team in college golf, Auburn, as its top seed and host institution, and includes nine teams that are listed among the top 50 teams in the Scoreboard NCAA Golf rankings. In order of seed, the field also includes Texas A&M (12), UCLA (13/Big Ten champion), SMU (24), Tech (25), Oregon (36), Purdue (37), Little Rock (48/Ohio Valley champion), TCU (50), College of Charleston (62), New Mexico State (63), Loyola Maryland (142/Patriot League champion) and USC Upstate (227/Big South champion).
“We’re thrilled to be playing, and Auburn couldn’t be a better place for us to go,” said head coach Bruce Heppler. “We’re used to playing in those course conditions, and it’s the easiest trip we can make. Let’s go do it!”
The Yellow Jackets are playing in an NCAA regional for the 27th straight year and for the 34th time in the 36 years the NCAA has used a regional qualifying format for its championship. 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), sharing the regional title in 2022 in Columbus, Ohio and winning the 2023 regional in Salem, S.C., by eight strokes.
Tech has advanced to match play as one of the final eight teams in each of the last two NCAA Championships, reaching the finals in 2023 in Scottsdale, Ariz., and the semifinals in 2024 in Carlsbad, Calif.
The other regional sites and their top seeds are LSU at Amherst, Va. (Poplar Grove Golf Course), Arizona State at Bremerton, Wash. (Gold Mountain Golf Club), Texas at Reno, Nev. (Montreux Golf and Country Club), Ole Miss at Tallahassee, Fla. (Seminole Legacy Golf Club) and Oklahoma State at Urbana, Ill. (Atkins Golf Club).
TEAM UPDATE – Tech has been ranked as high as No. 12 in the Scoreboard NCAA Rankings, following its fourth-place finish at the Watersound Invitational, which remains the Yellow Jackets highest finish of the spring. Tech won the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational in the fall, and also finished first in the stroke-play portion of the East Lake Cup.
Tech finished eighth in stroke play at the ACC Championship last weekend, and lost to No. 12 Virginia in the quarterfinals of match play.
Heppler, who has coached Tech to 21 NCAA Championship appearances in his 29 years on The Flats, has used the same lineup for most of the Yellow Jackets’ spring events, led by redshirt junior Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands), ranked No. 68 in the Scoreboard rankings, and freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden), who ranks No. 120. Reuter has three top-10 finishes in 11 events, and Hansson was the Yellow Jackets’ highest finisher (T-14) at the ACC Championship.
Reigning NCAA individual champion Hiroshi Tai (Singapore) is ranked No. 226, while sophomores Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) and Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) are ranked No. 196 and 336, respectively. Junior Aidan Tran (Fresno, Calif.) has competed in eight events as both an individual and part of Tech’s lineup, and was the Jackets’ alternate at the ACC Championship.
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