Schniederjans records 4-under in each round as GT wins

PALM CITY, Fla. -- Ollie Schniederjans carded his third consecutive 4-under-par 67 on Tuesday to capture medalist honors, and fourth-ranked Georgia Tech put together a solid final round and scored an eight-shot victory past Oklahoma State at the Valspar Invitational at Floridian.

The Yellow Jackets won their first tournament of the spring and their third of the year, finishing 54 holes at 15-under-par 837 after posting a 1-under-par 283 on Tuesday. Tech was one of only two teams to break par in the final round in windy conditions at the 7,076-yard, par-71 Floridian Golf Club.

The third-ranked Cowboys were tied with Tech at the outset Tuesday, but played the front nine in 12-over-par to take themselves out of contention. After falling to the middle of the pack during the round, they rallied on the back nine to post a 7-over-par score of 291 and a tournament total of 845 (7-under). Texas A&M (6-under) shot even-par on Tuesday and finished third, followed by LSU (5-under). Arkansas and SMU (4-under) tied for fourth, and Florida State and Houston (1-under) tied for sixth.

Seven of the 15 teams competing are ranked in the nation's top 25, and 13 of them are in the top 50.

"This was one of the best fields of the year, and it was a tremendous program, so we feel very good about winning this event," said Tech coach Bruce Heppler. "We started out a bit slowly, but played very solid the rest of the day."

This was the strongest performance of the spring for Tech, which was the runner-up at the Puerto Rico Classic against a tough field, but finished seventh and 12th in its other two tournaments. The Yellow Jackets won their first two fall events and finished second in the other two.

Schniederjans, with a 12-under-par score of 201, won the medal race by two strokes better than LSU's Stewart Jolly (203, 10-under). Andrew Lister of Texas A&M and 36-hole leader Jack Maguire of Florida State tied for third place at 204 (9-under). The No. 6-ranked individual in the nation, he won twice in the fall and has six top-10 finishes this year. The Valspar victory earns Schniederjans an exemption for next year's Valspar Championship on the PGA Tour, and he becomes the first Tech player to win three tournaments in the same year since Troy Matteson won four in 2001-02.

Richard Werenski shot even-par 71 for Tech on Tuesday, while Bo Andrews added a 72 and Seth Reeves a 73. Andrews and Reeves finished in a nine-player tie for 15th place at 1-under-par 212.