CARLSBAD, Calif. – Georgia Tech sophomore Hiroshi Tai shot a 1-under 71 Monday to become the Yellow Jackets' fourth national collegiate champion, and the Yellow Jackets finished with a team score of 4-over 292 to advance to the match play division of the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship for the second consecutive year.
This will be Tech's sixth appearance in the Match Play since the NCAA instituted the format in 2009, but this time it will be in the most unexpected way possible, with the Yellow Jackets losing All-American Christo Lamprecht to a back injury after the opening round. The Jackets will face top-seeded Illinois, which won the team event by 16 strokes, at 9:50 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
Tye, who was leading by two strokes at 6-under for the tournament, nearly dashed his and his team's hopes when he hit his tee shot into a greenside bunker for a triple bogey on the penultimate hole of the round, the par-3 eighth, which dropped him to 3-under, one stroke behind individually, and dropped the Yellow Jackets from the top eight on the leaderboard.
But coach Bruce Heppler's team wasn't done yet. Tye got up-and-down on the final hole for par, and his teammates ahead of him made similar par-saving shots on the final two holes to keep the Jackets alive. Freshman Carson Kim (of Yorba Linda, Calif.) chipped in for birdie on the eighth hole, the same hole Tye made a three-stroke, while senior Bartley Forrester (of Gainesville, Ga.) and freshman Aidan Tran (of Fresno, Calif.) also got up-and-down from off the green to avoid danger on the final hole.
Tye and his teammates then waited more than an hour to find out where they stood. Florida, which beat Tech in the final a year ago, played the final three holes in seven over par, and Oklahoma struggled to finish the round as well, dropping both teams and putting the Yellow Jackets back in the top eight.
The players chasing Tie were some of the best in college golf. Vanderbilt's Gordon Sargent, who had taken the lead when Tie stumbled, lost two strokes over the final six holes. Florida State's Luke Clanton, Virginia's Ben James, Stanford's Carl Vilips and Auburn's Jackson Koivun all failed to get the birdies they needed to win or tie. Playing in the final group of the round, Sargent and James both missed birdie putts that would have forced a playoff.
“(Winning the title) means a lot to me,” Tye said. “Everyone on my team has really helped me these last two and a half years, not just the six guys here but everyone back home. They've been some of the best friends I've had in my life and I'm really grateful for the relationships I've been able to build thanks to my coaches. [Bruce Heppler] And he brought me here.”
Tye joins Watts Gunn (1927), Charlie Yates (1934) and Troy Mattson (2002) as national collegiate champions from Georgia Tech.
The winner of the Tech-Illinois game will face the winner of the match between No. 4 seed North Carolina and No. 5 seed Florida State in the semifinals. On the other side of the bracket, No. 2 seed Vanderbilt will face No. 7 seed Ohio State and No. 3 seed Virginia will face No. 6 seed Auburn. Both games will start at 10:40 a.m. EDT, with the winners meeting in the other semifinal in the afternoon. The semifinal will start at 3:45 p.m. EDT.
Golf Channel will broadcast live coverage of the quarterfinals beginning at 1:00 PM EDT and the semifinals beginning at 6:00 PM EDT.
TECHNICAL LINEUP – Tye, who started the day three strokes behind, played the first 16 holes on Monday without a bogey, birdieing at 10, 16, 1 and 2 to move to six under par for the tournament, but then had a triple bogey on No. 8, ending a 36-hole bogey-free streak that stretched back to the end of the second round on Saturday. His 72-hole total was three under par 285.
“At the time I didn't know where I was in the individual rankings, but I found out after it was over,” Tai said. [assistant coach Devin Stanton] He was with me all day and just kept telling me to focus on myself, do my best for the team and hope we get to play in the game. After I found out we were pretty much safe, I was pretty fired up. That was the most fired up I've been in a long time.”
Kim actually recorded Tech's best score on Monday, a 2-under 70 that included five birdies. He finished the championship tied for 53rd at 299 (+11). Forrester and Tran both shot 75 and 76 on Monday, respectively, and were credited to the Jackets.
Freshman Cale Fontenot (Lafayette, Louisiana) shot 78 on Monday to finish tied for 67th individually with Forester at 302 (+14).
“Well, you need more than five guys to start the year, but Aidan Tran did a great job (substituting for Lamprecht in the final three rounds). He made some birdies late today and it paid off,” Heppler said. “We've just tried to stick to the belief of putting five guys out on the course every day and letting them do their best. I'm really proud of them. They're great players.”
Notes – Ty's victory comes with perks, including a spot in the U.S. Open three weeks later and an invitation to the Masters in 2025…Christo Lamprecht maintained his No. 2 spot in the PGA Tour College Rankings despite sitting out the final three days of the NCAA Championship, thus earning him full-exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour for the remainder of the 2024 season and a spot in the final stage of the 2024 PGA Tour Q School presented by Korn Ferry…Lamprecht's career scoring average of 70.05 broke the program record of 70.69 set by Bryce Mulder in 1997-01. His season average of 69.16 this year also broke the record of 69.43 set by Mulder in 2000-01.
Coach Bruce Heppler and Hiroshi Tai speak after the fourth round
TEAM LEADERBOARD – Illinois, which led by six strokes after the first three rounds, shot 4-under 284 on Monday to finish 16 strokes ahead of runner-up Vanderbilt and earn the top seed in the team match play. Joining Illinois in the team match play, in order of seeds 2-8, are Vanderbilt, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida State, Auburn, Ohio State and Georgia Tech. Defending national champion Florida finished in 11th place. Illinois will enter the match play as a No. 1 seed for just the second time in school history, having also earned the top seed in 2015.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – The list of players that Ty held off for the title includes 2022 champion Gordon Sargent of Vanderbilt, Tyler Goecke of Illinois, Luke Clanton of Florida State, Jackson Coyvan of Auburn, 2024 Ben Hogan Award winner Max Herendeen of Illinois and Ben James of Virginia, who each shot 2-under 286.
Notre Dame's Palmer Jackson, Stanford's Carl Vilips and Ohio State's Adam Wallin tied for eighth at 287 (-1).
Round 4 Photo: Tim Cowie
Tech's NCAA Championship History
Only Oklahoma State (9), Texas (7) and Vanderbilt (7) have advanced to the NCAA Match Play more times than the Yellow Jackets' six appearances. Tech is one of just three teams to survive the 54-hole cut in the last four NCAA Championships (the others are North Carolina and Vanderbilt) and made it to Match Play last year, when the Yellow Jackets beat Pepperdine and North Carolina before losing in the finals to Florida.
The Yellow Jackets placed third in stroke play in 2010, second in 2011, second in 2013, fifth in 2014 and tied for fifth in 2023 before finishing eighth this year.
Tech has reached the NCAA Championship Final 32 times since 1985 (33 in program history), fifth-most in that span behind Oklahoma State (37), Arizona State (35), Florida (35) and Texas (35).
Tech has been runner-up at the NCAA Championship five times (1993, before the introduction of match play, 2000, 2002, 2005, and 2023). Only Oklahoma State (18) and Texas (6) have more runner-up finishes than Tech.
Alexander Tharp Foundation
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is Georgia Tech's athletic fundraising arm, providing scholarships, operational and facilities support to the university's more than 400 student-athletes. Support the Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which provides direct scholarships to Georgia Tech student-athletes, and help develop Yellow Jackets who will thrive academically and compete at the highest level of championships in collegiate sports. To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
About Georgia Tech Golf
The Georgia Tech golf team is in its 29th year under Coach Bruce Heppler, who has won 72 championships during his tenure. Coach Heppler is the 10th longest tenured coach in Division I men's golf. The Yellow Jackets have won 19 Atlantic Coast Conference championships, appeared in 33 NCAA championships and finished as national runner-up five times. To connect with the Georgia Tech golf team on social media, like or follow our Facebook page. Twitter (@GTGolf) and Instagram. For more information on Tech Golf, visit Ramblinwreck.com
