Carlsbad, California – Georgia Institute of Technology Bartley Forrester, Aidan Tran and Hiroshi Tai The Yellow Jackets defeated top-seeded Illinois, 3-1, on Tuesday morning to advance to the semifinals of the NCAA Men's Division I Golf Championship.
Tech will face No. 5 seed Florida State, which beat No. 4 seed North Carolina 3-1, at 4:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The Golf Channel will broadcast the game live at 6 p.m.
The Fighting Illini, who won the stroke-play team title by 16 strokes after 72 holes, continued to do well early in Tuesday's action, leading four of the opening five matches and three at the turn, but Tech slowly began to close the gap.
Forrester earned the Yellow Jackets their first point and fell behind after two holes before defeating Tyler Geck 3&1 in the lead match. He birdied the par-3 eighth hole to take a one-hole lead.NumberThe match was back and forth, but the Tech senior from Gainesville, Georgia, won three straight holes with pars on the 15th, 16th and 17th holes to improve to 4-0 in NCAA Match Play.
Tran replaced All-American Christo Lamprecht in Tech's final 54 holes of stroke play and led the Yellow Jackets to a 3&2 victory over Piersen Hunt on Tuesday. The sophomore from Fresno, California, never trailed in the penultimate match before taking the lead with a birdie on the eighth hole.Number He extended his lead through three holes and beat Hunt on the 16th hole by a par-1.5.Number hole.
It was NCAA individual champion Tai who sealed Tech's victory in the anchor match, as the sophomore from Singapore tied the score with a birdie on the 10th hole.NumberHe won the par-4 12th, 13th and 14th holes in succession to take a three-stroke lead, then wrapped up the match on the 16th when his tee shot hit the flag and fell within three feet of the cup.
“I'm proud of my players,” the head coach said. Bruce Heppler“We played (well) on the back nine. The front played really well and (Illinois) made some birdies to put us behind, but we played better on the back nine, especially the 12th hole,” said Brown.Number “I won the (par-3) holes three or four and got back on track. I hit some great shots to get the hole in. Hiroshi's iron play was phenomenal and Aidan Tran played great as well.”
A look back at Tech's semifinal win over Illinois
In the other two games, freshman Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, California) He lost to Max Herendeen 5&4. Cale Fontenot (Lafayette, Louisiana) He nearly made up the four-hole deficit and was within one hole with 18 holes to play, but the match was left undecided as Tye won the deciding point.
On the other side of the bracket, there is a 6NumberNo. 3 seed Auburn beat No. 3 seed Virginia, 3-1, to advance to the semifinals, where they'll face No. 7 seed Ohio State, which beat No. 2 seed Vanderbilt, 3-1. For the first time in the NCAA Championship, all four lower-seeded teams won on Tuesday morning.
Note – Tech has a 4-5 record in six appearances in the NCAA Match Play, reaching the quarterfinals in three of those appearances…Bartley Forrester won all three matches at the 2023 NCAA Championship to improve his individual record to 4-0…Hiroshi Tai improved his match play record to 2-2…Tech lost 3-0 to Florida State in the ACC Championship semifinals in April and is 1-1 overall against the Seminoles in postseason match play.
Quarterfinal Photos: Tim Cowie
Tech's NCAA Championship History
Only Oklahoma State (9), Texas (7) and Vanderbilt (7) have advanced to the NCAA Match Play more times than the Yellow Jackets' six appearances. Tech is one of just three teams to survive the 54-hole cut in the last four NCAA Championships (the others are North Carolina and Vanderbilt) and made it to Match Play last year, when the Yellow Jackets beat Pepperdine and North Carolina before losing in the finals to Florida.
The Yellow Jackets placed third in stroke play in 2010, second in 2011, second in 2013, fifth in 2014 and tied for fifth in 2023 before finishing eighth this year.
Tech has reached the NCAA Championship Final 32 times since 1985 (33 in program history), fifth-most in that span behind Oklahoma State (37), Arizona State (35), Florida (35) and Texas (35).
Tech has been runner-up at the NCAA Championship five times (1993, before the introduction of match play, 2000, 2002, 2005, and 2023). Only Oklahoma State (18) and Texas (6) have more runner-up finishes than Tech.
Alexander Tharp Foundation
The Alexander Tharp Foundation is Georgia Tech's athletic fundraising arm, providing scholarships, operational and facilities support to the school's more than 400 student-athletes. By helping develop Yellow Jackets who excel academically and compete for championships at the highest level of collegiate sports, the Foundation is helping to: Annual Sports Scholarship Fundprovides direct scholarship funding to Georgia Tech student-athletes. For more information on supporting the Yellow Jackets, @Fund.
About Georgia Tech Golf
The Georgia Tech golf team is in its 29th year.Number In his one year under coach Bruce Heppler, the team won 72 tournaments. Heppler was the 10thNumberHe is the longest tenured head coach in Division I men's golf. The Yellow Jackets have won 19 Atlantic Coast Conference championships, appeared in 33 NCAA championships and finished as national runner-up five times. To join Georgia Tech Golf on social media, like or follow our Facebook page. Twitter (@GTGolf) and Instagram. For more information on Tech Golf, visit Ramblinwreck.com
