Olympia Fields, Ill. – Georgia Tech’s golf team, six strokes off the lead to start the day, is 9-under-par in the final round and holds a two-stroke lead over Arizona State after Saturday’s play was suspended due to darkness at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational. The 17th-ranked Yellow Jackets, who did not win a tournament in 2023-24, is in the cusp of its first victory since the 2023 NCAA Salem (S.C.) Regional.
With thunderstorms forecast for Sunday, the tournament pushed tee times ahead 30 minutes Saturday with the intent to play 36 holes and finish the tournament. The final group of Jose Luis Ballester of Arizona State, Benjamin Reuter of Georgia Tech and Ian Gilligan of Florida was the only one unable to finish Saturday before play was suspended at 7:56 p.m.
Reuter (-9), tied for the lead after Friday’s opening round, is one stroke behind Ballester (-10), the reigning U.S. Amateur Champion, as both players return to the Olympia Fields Country Club at 8:30 a.m. Sunday to complete their final two holes. Those two holes will determine the team and individual champion. Reuter is 3-under-par for the final round, while Ballester is even.
Tech posted a 3-under-par 277 in round 2 Saturday and has a 9-under-par final round going, seven strokes better than the next best round of the day. The Jackets, 13-under-par for the tournament, overtook the No. 2-ranked Sun Devils (-11), who are even-par in round 3, on the team leaderboard.
TECH LINEUP – Reuter, who’s previous high finish was a tie for fourth place at the 2022 NCAA Columbus Regional, has six birdies on his card for Saturday’s final round, and is 3-under-par despite a triple bogey on the par-4 14th. The redshirt junior from Naarden, The Netherlands shot even-par 70 in round 2 Saturday.
Reigning NCAA Champion Hiroshi Tai shot a pair of 1-under-par 69s Saturday and is tied for sixth place individually at 3-under-par 207. The junior from Singapore has nine top-10 finishes in his career.
Tech received stellar closing rounds from its two sophomores Saturday at Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) led the Yellow Jackets with a 4-under-par 66, and Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) posted a 69. Both players are tied for 28th place overall at 213 (+3).
Freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden) shot a 68 for Tech in round 2 Saturday and a 75 in the final round, and will finish in a tie for 37th place at 215 (+5).
TEAM LEADERBOARD – Arizona State (-11) led the tournament by six shots after Friday’s play and seven after the second round closed Saturday, but Georgia Tech (-13) made it a two-team race and overtook the Sun Devils with four players under par in the final round.
No. 18 Oklahoma State put forth two solid rounds Saturday and is tied for third place with No. 16 North Carolina at 1-under-par 839. No. 11 Texas finished in fifth place at 3-over-par 843, with No. 20 Stanford and No. 19 Texas A&M tied for sixth at 848 (+8). Host Illinois (No. 5) and No. 9 Florida are tied for eighth place at 9-over-par.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – The Sun Devils’ Ballester (-10) and the Yellow Jackets’ Reuter (-9) will finish their final two holes Sunday morning to determine the individual champion.
Texas’ Christian Maas and Northwestern’s Daniel Svard are tied for third place at 203 (-7), followed by Tech’s Tai, Illinois’ Ryan Voois, Florida State’s Luke Clanton, Texas’ Luke Potter and North Carolina’s David Ford tied for sixth place at 207 (-3).
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The Yellow Jackets are competing in the OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational for the third time, having shared the 2019 title with Baylor and finishing third last fall. Illinois hosts the 15-team event, which will be contested over 54 holes beginning Friday and concluding Sunday at Olympia Fields Country Club’s North course, which plays to a par-70 and measures 7,353 yards. The club has hosted two U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships.
The 15-team field (with current Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches national ranking) includes Alabama (7), Arizona State (2), Baylor, Florida (9), Florida State (10), Georgia Tech (17), Illinois (5), Michigan, North Carolina (16), Northwestern, Oklahoma State (18), Stanford (20), Texas (11), Texas A&M (19) and Texas Tech (14). Tech, FSU, Illinois and North Carolina all reached match play at the NCAA Championship last May.
