Alpharetta, Ga. – Kale Fontenot and Hiroshi Tai each shot 1-over-par 73 Friday, pacing No. 9 Georgia Tech to an 8-over-par total of 296 and tying for 13^th place after the opening round of the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational.

None of the Yellow Jackets were able to break par on their home course on a perfect day weather-wise, and they find themselves 17 strokes of the pace of No. 7 Virginia, which has a one-stroke lead over UCLA. Fontenot and Tai are tied for 29^th place individually.

Tech has a victory under its collective belt at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational, where the Yellow Jackets bested No. 2 Arizona State by a stroke and a 15-team field that included 11 other top-25 teams, and a pair of eighth-place finishes at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate and the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational so far this fall.

The 14-team field includes four teams – Tech, Virginia (7) and Vanderbilt (10) – who advanced to match play at the NCAA Championship last May, and eight teams that competed in stroke play. Ten teams are currently ranked among the top-25 in the Scoreboard rankings.

Saturday’s round 2 begins at 9 a.m. from the first tee and 9:20 a.m. from the 10^th tee.

TECH LINEUP – Fontenot, a sophomore from Lafayette, La., had four birdies on his card Friday, but also two bogeys and a triple. Tai, a junior from Singapore and the defending NCAA Champion, had three birdies and four bogeys.

Red-shirt junior Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands) carded a 2-over-par 74 and is tied for 41^st place, while freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden) posted a 4-over 76 and is tied for 55^th. Sophomore Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) shot 77 (+5) and did not factor in the Jackets’ team score.

Tech’s best score Friday came from redshirt sophomore Brady Rackley IV (Atlanta, Ga.), who shot even-par 72 and is tied for 21^st place. Freshman Didrik Ringvall Bengtsson (Stockholm, Sweden) shot 2-over 74 and is tied for 41^st place, and junior Aidan Tran (Fresno, Calif.) shot 78 and is tied for 69^th.

Brady Rackley IV posted Tech’s best score Friday with an even-par 72. (photo by Clyde Click)

TEAM LEADERBOARD – No. 7 Virginia got four birdies and an eagle on the closing 18^th hole Friday to finish with a team score of 279 (-9) and grab the first-round lead by one stroke over UCLA, which had three subpar scores for an 8-under-par total of 280.

Duke (283, -5), Charlotte (284, -4), No. 10 Vanderbilt (285, -3) and Southern California (287, -1) all shot under par Friday at the par-72 Lakeside Course at the Golf Club of Georgia.

Duke (283, -5), Charlotte (284, -4), No. 10 Vanderbilt (285, -3) and Southern California (287, -1) all shot under par Friday at the par-72 Lakeside Course at the Golf Club of Georgia.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Charlotte’s Caden Baker tops the individual leaderboard after the opening round with a 6-under-par 66, one stroke ahead of a trio of golfers at 5-under-par 65, UCLA’s Omar Morales, Pepperdine’s Luke Bailey and Duke’s Ethan Evans.

UCLA’s Pablo Ereno, Vanderbilt’s Jackson Van Paris and Virginia’s Duangmanee are tied for fifth place at 68 (-4), while Wells Williams of Vanderbilt, Rich Wills of Clemson and Ben James of Virginia are tied for eighth at 69 (-3).

Virginia’s Bryan Lee and two others are tied for 11^th place at 2-under-par 70, with another seven golfers in the clubhouse at 1-under-par 71.66.

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate, formerly called the United States Collegiate Championship, is contested at the Yellow Jackets’ home club. The tournament will be played exclusively on the 7,092-yard, par 72 Lakeside Course, 18 holes each day Friday through Sunday. Competition begins at 9 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. Admission is free all three days.

Eight of the 14 teams competing at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate played in NCAA Championship last spring, and three (Tech, Vanderbilt, Virginia) reached match play. Ten teams are currently ranked among the top 25 in the Scoreboard NCAA rankings.

The full field (with Scoreboard NCAA Golf ranking in parentheses) – Alabama (11), Charlotte (46), Clemson, Duke (44), East Tennessee State, Georgia Tech (9), Pepperdine (18), Southern California, Stanford (24), Tennessee (17), UCLA (39), Vanderbilt (10), Virginia (7), Washington.

TECH’S GOLF CLUB OF GEORGIA COLLEGIATE HISTORY – Georgia Tech has won the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate twice in the event’s 17-year history, in 2010 and 2012. Three Tech players have won medalist honors. James White, who set tournament records for 18-hole score (62) and 54-hole score (204, broken in 2014), won in 2010, Ollie Schniederjans won in 2013, and Hiroshi Tai followed in 2022.

Clemson (2006, 2009), Oklahoma State (2013, 2017), Southern California (2008, 2019), Texas (2014, 2016) and Virginia (2016, 2023) also have won twice. The Cavaliers captured their second title last fall after sharing the 2016 title with the Longhorns. The tournament was not played in the fall of 2020 due to COVID-19.

The Yellow Jackets finished runner-up the last two years, and have finished in the top five 13 times in 17 years.

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 30^th 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.