If seeing birdies and eagles being made is your idea of fun
at a golf tournament, the place to be last weekend was the ACC Championship at
the Old North State Club in New London, N.C.
Georgia Tech, No. 5 in the latest Golfstat rankings, won the ACC team title for the 17th
time and for the 12th time under Bruce Heppler with a whopping
29-under-par total over the 7,102-yard, par-72 Old North State Club layout. Georgia
Tech has had a particular affinity for the Old North State Club, taking 11 of
the 17 ACC Championships staged there.
And the Yellow Jackets accomplished that without having an
individual finisher in the top 10. How can that happen? Because just about
everybody in the talented field of ACC players was making birdies in bunches.
Georgia Tech opened up with a 12-under 276 last Friday,
added an 11-under 277 and “cooled off” with a 6-under 282 in Sunday's final round for
its 29-under 835 total. It was the ninth ACC crown in 13 years for a Georgia
Tech program that has been as close to being down as Georgia Tech gets the last
couple of years.
No. 15 Clemson, with reigning U.S. Amateur champion Doc
Redman, a sophomore from Raleigh, N.C., earning runnerup honors in the
individual standings, closed with a 10-under 278 to finish second behind the
Yellow Jackets at 27-under 837.
No. 25 Wake Forest closed with the best team round of the
championship, a remarkable 14-under 274, but could do no better than third at
26-under 838. No. 47 Virginia, led by individual champion Thomas Walsh, a junior
from High Point, N.C., was another two shots behind the Demon Deacons in fourth
at 24-under 840. Virginia went 10-under 278 in each of its last two rounds.
Defending ACC champion Duke, ranked 28th, was
four shots behind the Cavaliers in fifth at 20-under 844. No. 17 North Carolina
and No. 64 Notre Dame, which got off to a sizzling start with an opening round
of 11-under 277, shared sixth place at 19-under. You shoot 19-under and you’re
tied for sixth. Unbelievable.
Georgia Tech was led by Tyler Strafaci, a sophomore from
Davie, Fla., and sophomore Luke Schniederjans, the talented younger brother of
Georgia Tech alum and PGA Tour member Ollie from Powder Springs, Ga., both of
whom finished in the group tied for 12th at 8-under 208.
Strafaci added a final-round 68 to a pair of 70s.
Schniederjans opened with a sizzling 7-under 65, fell back with a 2-over 74 and
finished up with a 69.
Chris Petefish, a senior from Danville, Calif., finished in
the group tied for 17th at 7-under 209 after closing with an
even-par 72. Andy Ogletree, a sophomore from Little Rock, Miss., finished among
the group tied for 24th at 3-under 213 after a final round of 1-over
73.
Freshman phenom Noah Norton of Chico, Calif. came into the
ACC Championship as the Yellow Jackets’ No. 1 player and finished among the
group tied for 48th at 5-over 221. But, like all the good teams do,
Norton’s teammates picked him up and he did grind out a 1-under 71 in the
second round that offset the 74 posted by Schniederjans.
Virginia’s Walsh put the pedal down with an opening round of
5-under 67 and never took his foot off the gas, adding a 7-under 65 in
Saturday’s second round and finishing up with a 4-under 68 for a 16-under 200
total. He is the second straight Virginia player to claim the ACC individual
title, following in the footsteps of Jimmy Stanger, who won a four-man playoff
at Musgrove Mill Golf Club a year ago.
Redman, a member of the winning United States team in last
summer’s Walker Cup Match at Los Angeles Country Club, paced Clemson’s closing
surge with a 6-under 66, but he couldn’t quite catch Walsh as he settled for
second place at 14-under 202, two shots behind Walsh.
Walsh’s teammate, Danny Walker, a sophomore from Bradenton,
Fla., was a shot behind Redman in third at 13-under 203. Walker matched
Schniederjans’ opening-round 65 and then added a pair of 3-under 69s.
Wake Forest’s Paul McBride, a senior from Ireland,
sandwiched an even-par 72 with a pair of 66s to finish alone in fourth at
12-under. McBride, a member of the Great Britain & Ireland team that fell
to Redman and the Americans in the Walker Cup Match, was one of the
participants in the playoff for the title ultimately won by Stanger a year ago.
North Carolina’s Ben Griffin, a senior home boy from Chapel
Hill, N.C., finished fifth at 11-under 205. Griffin had three rounds in the
60s, following up an opening-round 67 with a pair of 69s.
North Carolina State’s Stephen Franken, a junior from
Raleigh, N.C., and Louisville’s Nicolas Platret, a senior from France, finished
in a tie for sixth at 10-under 206. Franken finished up strong with a 5-under
67 while Platret, who opened with a 67, closed with a 2-under 70.
I’m sure the ACC will be well-represented when the NCAA
regional bids are announced, but I doubt if the teams will find scoring conditions
at their respective regional sites as friendly as they were last weekend at the
Old North State Club.
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