HE FLATS – Led by reigning NCAA Champion Hiroshi Tai and three other returning golfers who played significant roles in helping Georgia Tech reach the semifinals of the 2024 NCAA Championship, the Yellow Jackets have been ranked No. 11 ahead of the fall season in the Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches Poll.
Tech faces this schedule following the loss of the world’s top amateur player, Christo Lamprecht, now competing on the Korn Ferry Tour, and Bartley Forrester, a two-time winner in his five years on The Flats. Both graduated last spring after leading the Jackets to the semifinals of match play at the NCAA Championship.
Head coach Bruce Heppler, beginning his 30th year at the helm of the Tech program, welcomes back the Tech’s fourth all-time national collegiate champion in Tai, who has won three times in his career. Tai was a first-team All-American by the Golf Coaches Association and a second-team choice by Golfweek magazine, finishing the spring ranked No. 38 in the Scoreboard NCAA individual rankings. He finished out of the top 25 only once in 12 events while playing No. 3 in the Tech lineup. The Singapore native enters the fall No. 22 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Tech also returns a pair of juniors in Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands), who redshirted last year, and Aidan Tran (Fresno, Calif.), who played four rounds for the Jackets at the NCAA Championship in place of injured All-American Christo Lamprecht. Up-and-coming sophomores Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) and Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.), who each played 12 events as freshmen, are also back along with redshirt sophomore Brady Rackley IV (Atlanta, Ga.).
Heppler recruited a pair of freshmen from Sweden, Albert Hansson and Didrik Ringvall Bengtsson, giving the Jackets an eight-player roster. A heralded junior player who already has had some success on the amateur circuit, Hansson is ranked No. 27 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Tech begins a challenging fall schedule next weekend at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate (Sept. 6-8) in Knoxville, Tenn., and finishes it in late October with its second straight appearance in the East Lake Cup (Oct. 28-30) at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. The Jackets also host their annual home event, the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational, Oct. 18-20 in Alpharetta, Ga.
