A year ago in the
Puerto Rico Classic at Rio Mar Country Club’s River Course, Georgia and Georgia
Tech battled to a tie for the team title with Oklahoma not far behind in third
place.
The same three teams finished at the top of the leaderboard
at this year’s Puerto Rico Classic, which concluded Tuesday in Rio Grande,
Puerto Rico.
This time, though, Georgia Tech, No. 3 in the latest Golfstat
rankings, finished alone at the top to capture the team title with No. 2 Oklahoma
chasing the Yellow Jackets home, settling for a runnerup finish, just two shots
behind Georgia Tech. No. 18 Georgia was another 11 shots behind the Sooners in
third place.
They are three of the legitimate powers on the Division I
men’s scene, capable of taking it very deep in any season. They are directed by
three of the most respected coaches in college golf: Bruce Heppler, in his 25th
season at Georgia Tech, has won everything but a national championship; Ryan Hybl,
in his 11th season at Oklahoma, directed the Sooners to the 2017
national crown at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill.; and Chris Haack, in
his 24th season at Georgia, guided the Bulldogs to national
championships in 1999 and 2005.
So when these three teams get together, you have to pay
attention. And maybe, just maybe, this is finally Heppler’s year.
After opening with a 6-under 282 in Sunday’s opening round,
Georgia Tech, behind eventual individual co-champion Bartley Forrester, a
redshirt freshman from Gainesville, Ga., reigning U.S. Amateur champion Andy
Ogletree, a senior from Little Rock, Miss. and No. 16 in the World Amateur Golf
Ranking (WAGR), and Luke Schniederjans, a senior from Powder Springs, Ga., went
off in Monday’s second round to the tune of a 20-under 268 over the 6,902-yard,
par-72 River Course layout.
Forrester and Ogletree, who became the third Georgia Tech
player to win a U.S. Amateur title last summer at Pinehurst, joining Matt
Kuchar and Bobby Jones – yes, that Bobby Jones – each fired a sizzling 6-under
66 and Schniederjans, younger brother of former Georgia Tech standout and PGA
Tour performer Ollie, signed for a 4-under 68.
Georgia Tech, coming off a solid fifth-place finish in a
tightly-bunched leaderboard at The Amer Ari Invitational in Hawaii earlier this
month, closed with another 6-under 282 Tuesday for a 32-under 832 total.
Oklahoma, which trailed the Yellow Jackets by only a shot heading into the
final round after a pretty impressive 18-under 270 of its own in the second
round, finished up with a 5-under 283 to finish second at 30-under 834.
Georgia Tech rolled to an Atlantic Coast Conference crown
last spring and emerged, along with Oklahoma, out of the Pullman Regional to
make it to the NCAA Championship at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville,
Ark. Georgia, a Southeastern Conference power, was an impressive winner of the
Athens Regional it hosted.
Only the Sooners of the three, though, had any success at
The Blessings as they earned a spot in the match-play bracket for a third
straight spring, falling to Big 12 rival Texas in the quarterfinals.
Georgia was steady in Puerto Rico, adding a pair of 8-under
280s to its opening-round 285 for a 19-under 845 total. The 280 Tuesday was the
best score of the final round. The Bulldogs’ SEC rival Alabama, ranked 50th,
was another three shots behind Georgia in fourth place at 16-under 848 after
closing with a 1-under 287. The Crimson Tide got it going in Monday’s second
round, when it looks like the River Course was very gettable, with a 12-under
276.
Georgia Tech’s ACC rival Clemson, ranked 23rd,
was seven shots behind Alabama in fifth place at 9-under 855. The Tigers had
matched Alabama’s 12-under 276 in the second round before falling back with a
final round of 5-over 293.
No. 34 Mississippi, another SEC entry, finished a shot
behind Clemson in sixth place in the strong 15-team field at 8-under 856, the
Rebels closing with a 2-under 286.
Forrester closed with a final round of 3-under 69 to catch
Oklahoma’s Garrett Reband, a senior from Fort Worth, Texas and No. 32 in the
WAGR, and the College of Charleston’s Logan Sowell, a senior from Kershaw,
S.C., for a share of the individual title at 9-under 207. It was the first
college tournament win for all three players.
Ogletree carded a final round of 2-under 70 and
Schniederjans matched par in the final round with a 72 and they were two of the
three players who finished in a tie for sixth place at 7-under 209.
Connor Howe, a sophomore from Ogden, Utah, was tied for the
individual lead after posting back-to-back 68s in the first two rounds, but
cooled off with a throw-out 76 in the final round and finished among the group
tied for 13th place at 4-under 212. Howe contributed that second 68
to the Yellow Jackets’ remarkable 20-under second-round salvo.
Tyler Strafaci, a senior from Davie, Fla., struggled in the
first two rounds with scores of 82 and 74, but he picked up Howe and the rest
of the team with a final round of 1-under 71 that left him among the group tied
for 65th place at 227.
Oklahoma’s Reband was a shot out of the individual lead after
adding a 5-under 67 to his opening-round 70. He closed with another 70 to get a
share of the individual crown. The College of Charleston’s Sowell fired the
best round of the tournament, a 7-under 65, in Monday’s second round to get a
share of the 36-hole lead at 8-under 136 before closing with a 71 to get his
piece of the individual title.
Reband’s teammate Patrick Welch, a sophomore from
Providence, R.I., and Georgia’s Trent Phillips, a sophomore from Inman, S.C.
and No. 38 in the WAGR, finished in a tie for fourth place, just a shot behind
the three co-champions at 8-under 208.
Welch fired a 6-under 66 in the second round to get within a
shot of the 36-hole lead before closing with a 1-under 71. Phillips’
final-round 66 was the best score of the day Tuesday as he moved up the
leaderboard.
Joining Georgia Tech’s Ogletree and Schniederjans in the
trio tied for sixth place at 7-under 209 was Oklahoma’s Quade Cummins, a
redshirt senior from Weatherford, Okla. who sandwiched a 5-under 67 in the
second round with a pair of 1-under 71s.
Jake Holbrook, a freshman from Granbury, Texas, joined two
other players tied for ninth place at 6-under 210, giving the Sooners four
players among the top nine. After opening with a 3-under 69 and adding a
2-under 70, Holbrook closed with a 1-under 71.
Holbrook was joined at 6-under by the College of
Charleston’s Hunter Dunagan, a senior from Augusta, Ga., and Alabama’s Thomas
Ponder, a freshman from Dothan, Ala. After a pair of 71s, Dunagan finished up
with a 4-under 68. Ponder added a 2-under 69 to his opening-round 70 before
closing with a 71.
Maryland, out of the Big Ten, also teed it up in the Puerto
Rico Classic and the Terrapins, ranked 103rd, finished 12th
at 11-over 875.
Freshman Austin Barbin of the golfing Barbins of Elkton,
Md., matched par in each of the final two rounds to join the group tied for 37th
place at 1-over 217. Barbin won the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior
Boys’ Championship at Coatesville Country Club last summer on his way to
earning GAP Junior Player of the Year honors for 2019.
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