Tech’s golf team opened its fall season last week in the traditional season-opening Carpet Capital Collegiate in Rocky Face, Ga. The Jackets are ranked No. 11 in the first Golf World magazine rankings and return five letterwinners and three newcomers from last year’s ACC title-winning team.
The Jackets opened the 2009-10 campaign by finishing third at the Carpet Capital Collegiate last weekend. They improved each day of the tournament after finishing in ninth place after Friday and tied for fifth after Saturday.
On the first day of match play, redshirt junior Paul Haley and junior Kyle Scott each shot even-par scores of 72 and were tied for 13th place individually.
Redshirt junior John-Tyler Griffin shot a 3-under-par to push Tech to a second-round total of 2-over 290 as they moved up to a tie for fifth place after two days of play.
The last day of the tournament saw Griffin and sophomore Minghao Wang each score a 2-under-par. Four other Jackets finished under par on the day as Tech finished the tournament at three-over-par, moving up to third place to conclude the three-day tournament.
Tennessee took first place over the 11 teams competing, finishing 13-under-par with a total score of 851. Second place went to Chattanooga, which shot one-under-par for the tournament. Auburn finished in fourth, posting six-over-par.
Nils Floren of Texas Tech and Darren Fenwick of Tennessee tied for the individual honors at 6-under-par. Haley was Tech’s best individual finisher over the weekend, as he tied for 14th place in even-par.
Tech will be of until next weekend when it will travel to Greensboro, N.C. for the UNCG Bridgestone Invitational. The Jackets will look to build on their recent success despite losing two talented seniors in three-time All-American Cameron Tringale and David Dragoo.