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Tech Golf Closes Fall Schedule with East Lake Cup

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Tech Golf Closes Fall Schedule with East Lake Cup


THE FLATS – Ranked No. 14 in the latest Scoreboard NCAA Golf Ranking, Georgia Tech’s golf team closes out its fall season by competing in the 10th annual East Lake Cup, a prestigious event bringing together the 2024 NCAA Championship semifinal teams, men and women, for a three-day stroke and match play competition.

The tournament, held at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, begins with a stroke-play round of 18 holes Monday, after which an individual medalist will be crowned, and continues with semifinal matches on Tuesday and concludes third-place and championship matches Wednesday. Seeding for the match play semifinals is based on team standing after Monday’s stroke play round.

The Yellow Jackets finished third in stroke play last year, lost to North Carolina in their semifinal match and defeated Florida in the third-place match. Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.), a freshman at the time, won medalist honors.

In four events this fall, Tech recorded a victory at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational, where the Yellow Jackets bested No. 2 Arizona State by a stroke and a 15-team field that included 11 other top-25 teams, a seventh-place finish in its home event, the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational last week, and a pair of eighth-place finishes at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate and the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational.

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The men’s field for the East Lake Cup also includes defending NCAA Champion Auburn, currently ranked No. 4 in the nation, Florida State (No. 32) and Ohio State (No. 55).

Stroke play begins Monday at 10:30 a.m. for the women’s teams and 11:42 a.m. for the men’s teams. Players are paired in foursomes, one player from each team. Matches begin at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Admission is free.

Head coach Bruce Heppler, in his 30th year at the helm of the Tech program, has returned four golfers who played significant roles in getting the Yellow Jackets to the semifinals of the NCAA Championship for the second straight year in 2024, including reigning NCAA Champion Hiroshi Tai (Singapore), who became Tech’s fourth national collegiate champion with his one-shot victory last May in Carlsbad, Calif.

Kale Fontenot shows off the Charles R. Yates Trophy after winning medalist honors as a freshman at last year’s East Lake Cup. (photo by Clyde Click)

 

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TECH LINEUP – Redshirt junior Benjamin Reuter (Naarden, The Netherlands) has been Tech’s top player this fall, posting a runner-up finish at Olympia Fields, a tie for 14th at the Ben Hogan and a tie for 15th at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational. He is ranked No. 32 in the Scoreboard NCAA rankings.

Tai, listed on the Fall Watch List for the Fred Haskins Award and as a pre-season All-American by Golfweek magazine and Golf Channel, has three top-20 finishes this fall and is ranked No. 84 in the NCAA Scoreboard rankings. leads the five-man contingent for the Yellow Jackets this weekend. The junior from Singapore won twice as a freshman prior to his NCAA Championship.

They are joined in the lineup for the East Lake Cup by Fontenot, the medalist at last year’s Cup, freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden), who is ranked No. 112 in the WAGR, and junior Aidan Tran (Fresno, Calif.), who stepped in to play three stroke play rounds and win a match at last year’s NCAA Championship.

EAST LAKE CUP INFORMATION – The 10th annual East Lake Cup takes place Monday through Wednesday at East Lake Golf Club, which hosts the final event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs on the PGA Tour each year. The competition includes each of the four men’s and women’s semifinal teams from the previous year’s NCAA Championship. East Lake Golf Club will measure 7,195 yards and play to a par of 72.

Golf Channel and Peacock will provide live coverage of the competition from 3-6 p.m. each day.

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Competition Schedule

  • Monday, Oct. 28 (stroke play): 10:30 a.m. | Golf Channel coverage: 3-6 p.m. (live); 8-11 p.m. (replay)
  • Tuesday, Oct. 29 (match play semifinals): 10:40 a.m. | Golf Channel coverage: 3-6 p.m. (live); 8-11 p.m. (replay)
  • Wednesday, Oct. 31 (match play finals and consolation): 10:40 a.m. | Golf Channel coverage: 3-6 p.m. (live); 8-11 p.m. (replay)

Men’s teams: Auburn, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Ohio State; Women’s teams: LSU, Oregon, Southern California, UCLA

Format – The tournament format features 18 holes of stroke play to determine an individual male and female champion, and to set seedings for team match play. There will then be two rounds of match play to determine a team champion, along with a consolation match to determine third place.

 


Full Steam Ahead

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Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.

ABOUT GEORGIA TECH GOLF

Georgia Tech’s golf team is in its 30th year under head coach Bruce Heppler, winning 73 tournaments in his tenure. The Yellow Jackets have won 19 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, made 33 appearances in the NCAA Championship and been the national runner-up five times. Follow Georgia Tech Golf on social media by liking their Facebook page, or following on X (@GTGolf) and Instagram. For more information on Tech golf, visit Ramblinwreck.com.

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Georgia

Georgia police arrest two opposition leaders at protest

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Georgia police arrest two opposition leaders at protest


Georgian police arrested two opposition leaders during a street protest against the ruling party on Sunday, a moved quickly denounced by the European Union, which condemned Tbilisi’s “brutal crackdown”.

The Black Sea nation has been rocked by daily mass protests since the Georgian Dream party claimed victory in October parliamentary elections rejected by the opposition as falsified.

Its critics accuse the government of democratic backsliding and of moving Tbilisi closer to Russia.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s announcement on November 28 that his cabinet would not pursue the opening of European Union membership talks with Brussels until 2028 further fuelled the demonstrations.

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On Sunday, police detained the leader of the liberal pro-European Akhali party, Nika Melia, and former Tbilisi mayor Gigi Ugulava, a prominent opposition figure, an AFP reporter saw.

The arrests — condemned by the EU’s top diplomat — were made as thousands of demonstrators attempted to block a highway entrance to the capital, Tbilisi.

Melia told journalists that a senior police official had kicked him while in the police station.

Melia’s lawyer said that the politician was “arrested on an administrative offence charge” and released from custody shortly after midnight after signing a written promise to appear in court.

Both Melia and Ugulava had spent years in prison under Georgian Dream’s rule on charges that rights groups have denounced as politically motivated.

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Several other people were also detained during the protest, with at least one appearing to have been injured.

The independent TV station Pirveli aired footage showing police brutally beating detained protesters.

– ‘Democracy on the line’ –

Late on Sunday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas blasted the arrests.

“The brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters, journalists and politicians tonight in Tbilisi is unacceptable,” Kallas wrote on X.

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“Georgia falls short of any expectation from a candidate country. The EU stands with the people of Georgia in their fight for freedom and democracy,” she added.

Georgia’s rights ombudsman, Levan Ioseliani, warned in a statement of “instances of mistreatment and excessive use of force by the police against citizens, journalists, and politicians”.

At the protest itself, 22-year-old university student Kote Baramia, told AFP: “All this police violence just proves the government is scared.

“Georgians will not back down, our democracy is on the line.”

The head of the Tbilisi police special task department, Zviad Kharazishvili — sanctioned by Britain and the United States for human rights violations — was heard hurling obscenities at demonstrators.

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Demonstrators marched for kilometres towards the parliament building, the site of their daily protests, blocking traffic along Tbilisi’s main avenue.

Before the rally, the interior ministry issued a statement warning demonstrators that blocking the highway “is a criminal offence punishable by up to four years in prison”.

In the first wave of protests that began in late November, riot police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowds, arresting more than 400 demonstrators, according to the interior ministry.

Ioseliani — Georgia’s top human-rights official — and Amnesty International have accused police of torturing those arrested.

– Unprecedented crisis –

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Georgian rights activists have denounced what they say is a mounting campaign of intimidation, beatings and arrests against those taking to the streets.

Tbilisi’s security forces and judiciary have faced persistent accusations of repression against the ruling party’s opponents.

The Georgian Dream government faces growing international isolation and mounting claims of democratic backsliding.

On Monday, Brussels suspended visa-free travel to the EU for Georgian diplomats and officials. It cited the adoption of several repressive laws and the “violent repression by Georgian authorities against peaceful protesters, politicians, and independent media”.

Last year, the United States and several European countries imposed sanctions on Georgian officials, pointing to the Tbilisi government’s drift toward Russia and its violent crackdown on protesters and dissent following the disputed election.

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Besides the largest anti-government protest movement in its history, Georgia is also grappling with an unprecedented constitutional crisis, as the opposition refuses to enter the newly elected parliament.

Pro-Western President Salome Zurabishvili has declared both the legislature and the government illegitimate.

Her successor — ruling party loyalist and far-right politician Mikheil Kavelashvili — was inaugurated on December 29 following a controversial election procedure, but Zurabishvili has insisted that she remains the legitimate leader.

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Tide Roll over Georgia 90-69

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Tide Roll over Georgia 90-69


HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) – The 4th ranked Alabama Men’s Basketball team extended its winning streak to five straight with a convincing 90-69 over Georgia in front of a sold out crowd inside Coleman Coliseum on Saturday afternoon.

Mark Sears collected his 13th game of 20 or more points this season, as he led the The Crimson Tide (19-3, 8-1 SEC) with a game high 20 points to go along with six assists and five boards. Grant Nelson secured his team-leading sixth double-double in the win, finishing with 16 points, 10 rebounds and a career high five blocks. Aiden Sherrell (12), Aden Holloway (10) and Chris Youngblood (10) also scored in double figures in the victory.

Georgia (15-7, 3-6 SEC) was led by Asa Newell, who scored 16 points on 6-of-15 shooting, to go along with seven rebounds.

“Unbelievable effort from our guys, really the effort we’ve been looking for outside of the start to the second half. You take that four minutes out, which I wasn’t really happy with that effort, but the other 36 minutes, I thought we played really hard,” Alabama Head Coach Nate Oats said postgame.

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“Outrebounded a really good team by 16 and still scored 20 even though we had 20 turnovers. Now, we’ve got to fix the turnovers. Obviously, it’s a major problem, and 12 of those 20 were from three of our fifth-year seniors, which shouldn’t be the case, but I thought those guys kind of set the tone.”

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Former Georgia 5-star OL emerges at Senior Bowl

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Former Georgia 5-star OL emerges at Senior Bowl


MOBILE, Ala. — Clay Webb has a Georgia national championship ring. It’s stuffed in a safety deposit box, where he can’t show it off. He has no desire to do so.

It’s a reminder of lost playing time, a lawsuit and giving up on a career that analysts had thought of as a sure thing.

“Three and a half years ago, I never imagined playing football again,” Webb said. “I kind of thought my dream was over.”

And yet Webb is at the Senior Bowl, a guard outdueling Kentucky’s Deone Walker, a possible first-round NFL draft pick, because of a short drive he made to see if Jacksonville State, the FCS school near his home, had any interest in a former five-star offensive lineman.

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Webb was a consensus five-star, rated No. 26 nationally by the 247Sports Composite in the 2019 class, seven spots ahead of Bo Nix and nine spots ahead of Jayden Daniels, both now thriving NFL quarterbacks.

Webb enrolled early at Georgia and played in four games as a true freshman. Then, in early in 2020, Webb was sued as one of three defendants accused of a bullying incident in 2018 at Oxford (Ala.) High School. Another then-student at the high school accused Webb of making him drink a cup with semen in it. The federal lawsuit has still not been resolved, and Webb said Wednesday his lawyers have told him not to comment on it. (The University of Georgia released a statement in 2020 that read: “While we cannot comment on this individual student matter, we review allegations of misconduct by our student-athletes and hold accountable those that do not meet our expectations.” UGA did not respond to messages this week when reached by The Athletic.)

Webb had trouble cracking the Georgia lineup and appeared in just three games the next season. The following season he didn’t play at all, sometimes not even suiting up as Georgia won the national championship.

“I just felt like I wasn’t needed at Georgia,” Webb said.

So he entered the transfer portal after spring practice, but without any real plans. He said he wanted to be with his family, as his grandfather was battling health problems, having his leg amputated. Webb supported his grandfather and mother and mulled his own future.

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“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” he said. “At that point in my life there was a lot of stuff going on. I was trying to figure things out as a man, what my dreams were.”

Webb decided football wasn’t completely off his mind. He doesn’t remember how long he considered himself retired — “it was awhile” — but at some point the summer of 2022 he made the 25-minute drive to Jacksonville State, just showing up and asking if the Gamecocks had any interest. The offensive line coach was, and still is, Rick Trickett, who has coached nearly 40 future pros in his long career, including the 2013 Florida State national champions. Trickett gave Webb an on-the-spot tryout — in the hallway of the Jacksonville State offices.

“I wanna see you do some snaps first,” Trickett said, according to Webb.

So Webb, wearing blue jeans and whatever shirt he picked that day, made a good impression.

Webb didn’t start until the fifth game of his first season. But once he did, he stuck in the lineup, starting the next two seasons, making Conference USA first team in 2024, and getting another ring — when Jacksonville State won the conference championship. That ring, Webb said, means more to him than the Georgia national one.

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“Football means a whole lot to me, and it’s been something special in my life for a whole long time,” he said. “But at that point (after leaving Georgia) I was thinking maybe I’m not good enough, or maybe wasn’t able to do this for a living.”

Rich Rodriguez was Jacksonville State’s head coach until returning to West Virginia after this last season.

“I loved coaching Clay,” Rodriguez said through a university spokesman. “He works really hard, has a hard edge and was one of our most consistent players at Jacksonville State. He has a humble personality, is an outstanding player and will be a real asset to any team in the NFL.”

To that end, Webb got the Senior Bowl invite. An AFC scout attending the Senior Bowl, given anonymity in order to be candid, offered this up to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler on Webb: “He was fine when I saw him in September. But his name kept popping up midseason so I revisited him and thought he was getting better and better. And I think that’s continued here. Good to see him at center during practice. Strong dude.”

Webb was asked if he feels again like the guy who was a five-star.

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“No. I believe I’ve learned from that point,” he said. “Not to care about rankings, but who I am as a person, and how better I can get every day.”

(Photo of Webb (left) at the Senior Bowl: Vasha Hunt / Imagn Images)



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