April 24, 2015
New London, N.C. – Anders Albertson fired a 5-under-par 67 to take the first-round lead, and 11th-ranked Georgia Tech is in a tie for fourth place, three strokes off the pace at the 62nd annual ACC Championship at the Old North State Club in New London, N.C.
ACC Championship page/Results and Live Scoring
TEAM LEADERBOARD – Georgia Tech played the back nine in 5-under-par and made three birdies at the par-5 18th hole to finish the opening round at 4-under-par 284, leaving the Yellow Jackets in a tie with Virginia Tech, three strokes behind Clemson, which posted a 7-under-par 281. Top-ranked Florida State (282, -6) is in second place, one shot back, with Virginia (283, -5) in third. No one else finished under par for the day, with Louisville (290, +2) occupying sixth place among the 12 competing teams.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – Anders Albertson, a three-time All-ACC choice who won the 2013 ACC title with a tournament record score (15-under-par 201), continued his success at the Old North State Club, recording five birdies with no bogeys on the back nine. Friday’s round was his eighth score in the 60s among his 10 career rounds in the ACC Championship. His career scoring average in the tournament is 68.6.
The Woodstock, Ga., senior has a one-stroke lead over Virginia Tech’s Trevor Cone and Florida State’s Hank Lebioda, both at 4-under-par 68. Five players are tied for fourth at 3-under 69. Fifteen of the 60 individuals competing broke par Friday.
TECH LINEUP – Ollie Schniederjans (Powder Springs, Ga.), the defending ACC champion, shot 1-under-par 71 for Tech and is in a tie for 13th place individually, while freshmen Chris Petefish (Danville, Calif.) and James Clark (Columbus, Ga.) each carded 1-over-par 73s and are tied for 23rd place. Sophomore Vincent Whaley (McKinney, Texas), co-medalist with Albertson at the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate two weeks ago, did not count after posting a 77.
COACH Bruce Heppler SAYS – “It was a good start for us today. We didn’t make a lot of putts, but we did a lot better on the back nine. Anders managed to play a good round without his best stuff, and I would expect Ollie will play better the next two days. Our new guys have seen the course now, so hopefully we can get a couple of good scores from them.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The ACC Championship is a 54-hole collegiate event, with the low four scores out of five counting toward the team score for each round. The second round gets underway at 8:30 a.m. Saturday with all teams beginning at the first hole. Sunday’s round will be a split-tee start at 8:30 a.m. with the top six teams after 36 holes starting on No. 1. Pairings for the final two rounds are determined by team standing at the end of the previous round. The Old North State Club, home to the ACC Tournament every year since 2002, is a par-72 layout measuring 7,102 yards. Nine of the 12 ACC teams are listed in the top 50 of this week’s Golfstat rankings, including Virginia (23), Wake Forest (27), Clemson (36), Virginia Tech (38), Duke (45) and NC State (48).
ESPN3 will provide live streaming coverage of the closing holes from 3-5 p.m. Saturday and 1-3 p.m. Sunday.
TOURNAMENT HISTORY – Georgia Tech got back on the winning track in 2014 with a six-stroke victory over Florida State at the 61st annual championship at the Old North State Club. It was Tech’s fifth title in the last six years and seventh in the last nine.
Ollie Schniederjans won medalist honors with a 12-under-par total of 204, five strokes better than Virginia’s Denny McCarthy and teammate Anders Albertson. That came one year after Albertson won with a tournament-record score of 201 (-15), breaking the previous mark of 202 set by Wake Forest’s Webb Simpson in 2008.
Schniederjans became Tech’s ninth ACC individual champion, joining Bob McDonnell (1985), David Duval (1991, 1993), Mikko Rantanen (1994), Bryce Molder (2000), Cameron Tringale (2006), Chesson Hadley (2010), Paul Haley (2011) and Albertson (2013).
Tech’s 15 ACC men’s golf titles in history ranks second among conference schools behind Wake Forest (18). Tech has won 10 of its conference titles under current head coach Bruce Heppler, eight of those outright (1999, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014) and two shared (2006, 2007). The Yellow Jackets won five championships (1985, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994) under previous head coach Puggy Blackmon.
Nine of Tech’s ACC titles have occurred at the Old North State Club, the first occurring in 1999 by 10 strokes over North Carolina and Duke. Tech won the 2011 crown with a tournament record score of 831 (-33) and by a record 20 strokes. Tech shared the 2006 title with North Carolina, and the 2007 crown with Virginia Tech.
ABOUT GEORGIA TECH GOLF
Georgia Tech’s golf team is in its 20th year under head coach Bruce Heppler. The Yellow Jackets have won 15 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made 27 appearances in the NCAA Championship and been the national runner-up four times. Connect with Georgia Tech Golf on social media by liking their Facebook page, or following on Twitter (@GT_Golf). For more information on Tech golf, visit Ramblinwreck.com.
