THE APARTMENTS – Following its second consecutive foray into match play at the NCAA Championship, the Georgia Tech golf team will compete in the annual East Lake Cup for the second time this fall. The culmination of the fall 2024 schedule also includes the 18^th Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational at its home course in Alpharetta, Georgia.

The Yellow Jackets will end their fall schedule with the East Lake Cup, which has been played at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta every year since 2015. Tech finished third in last year’s event, which was held at the Atlanta Athletic Club due to renovations at East Lake. This year’s edition will be held Oct. 28-30. Reigning national champion Auburn, runner-up Florida State and semifinalists Georgia Tech and Ohio State will compete in stroke play/match play for the men’s title, while 2024 champion Stanford, runner-up UCLA and semifinalists Oregon and Southern California will compete for the women’s title. The tournament will be broadcast live on Golf Channel.

Two weeks earlier, Tech will once again host many of the country’s best teams from coast to coast at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational, which will be played Oct. 18-20. The Yellow Jackets are one of two teams to win the title twice, most recently in 2012, and finished runner-up each of the past two years.

Seven of the 14 teams competing at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate played in the NCAA championship finals last spring, with three of them advancing to match play (Tech, Vanderbilt, Virginia), and a total of 11 competed in the NCAA regional championships. The field includes Alabama, Charlotte, Clemson, Duke, East Tennessee State, Pepperdine, Southern California, Stanford, Tennessee, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Washington.

Tech opens the fall schedule Sept. 6-8 with its first appearance at the Visit Knoxville Open, played at Tennessee National Golf Club in Loudon, Tennessee, outside Knoxville. The Yellow Jackets will then make their third appearance at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational Sept. 20-22 at Olympia Fields Country Club in Illinois, where Tech has finished second and third on its previous visits. Tech then returns to Fort Worth, Texas, for the third time Sept. 30-Oct. 1 to compete in the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational at the venerable Colonial Country Club.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us in the fall: five great events, all with strong fields on great golf courses, and that is what we promise all players who complete this program,” said head coach Bruce Hepplerwho led the Yellow Jackets to 72 tournament victories, 14 ACC championships and 26 NCAA appearances in 29 seasons on the Flats. “We are excited to return to the East Lake Cup and our event at the Golf Club of Georgia will be as strong as ever.”

Tech faces this schedule after losing the world’s best amateur player, Christo Lamprechtcurrently participating in the Korn Ferry Tour, and Bartley Forrestera two-time winner in his five years at The Flats. Both graduated last spring after leading the Jackets to the semifinals at the NCAA Championship.

However, Heppler welcomes the NCAA individual champion, the Junior Hiroshi Tai (Singapore)who has won three times in his career. Tech also brings two juniors back to Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, Netherlands)who wore a redshirt last year, and Aidan Tran (Fresno, California)who played four rounds for the Jackets at the NCAA Championship, and rising sophomores Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) And Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, California)who participated in 12 events as newcomers.