On April 19, the No. 6 ranked golf team captured its third ACC Men’s Golf Championship in four years. The Jackets led the entire weekend except for part of Sunday’s round. This title is the 11th for Tech’s golf program and sixth for head coach Bruce Heppler. On the day, junior Chesson Hadley was six-under-par with a 66 while senior Cameron Tringale shot a one-under-par 71 in his last round.
Heppler made big news after the conference tournament when he signed a new five-year contract on May 5th that will begin when his current pact expires in June 2010. Heppler, who is in his 14th year as the golf program’s head coach, was named ACC Coach of the Year for the fifth time.
The Jackets have received the No. 10 seed in the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship, which starts this Tuesday in Toledo, Ohio. They advanced into the finals by tying for third place in the Central Regional in Bowling Green, Ky. last week. The Jackets have been paired up with No. 11 seed Texas A&M and No. 12 seed Illinois for the first rounds of the championship.
Tech has made the 30-team field for the 11th time in 12 years, 22 times since 1985, and has finished in the top eight of the NCAA Championship seven times in ten appearances. In the last 25 years, the Jackets have appeared more times than any other school in the championship tournament except Oklahoma State, Florida, and Arizona State.
This year’s NCAA Championship has a new feature that determines a team champion via match play. This will be the first time the winner will not be awarded by total strokes since 1965. After 54 holes of stroke play, the top eight teams will advance to match play with the quarterfinals and semifinals being held on May 29 with the championship match set for May 30.