Ben Griffin shines as UNC men's golf places third in Linger Longer Invitational

In a weekend full of disappointing weather and results, the North Carolina men's golf team was able to take away the positives.

The team finished tied for third place with Kennesaw State in this weekend’s Linger Longer Invitational. The Tar Heels finished 17 under par, seven strokes behind the winner, Texas.

After the tournament, Coach Andrew Sapp expressed his satisfaction with his team’s performance against top competition.

“It’s good for us to be in the hunt with top-ranked teams,” Sapp said. “It is a great opportunity for (the team) to face teams like Texas and Oklahoma. We got to go down to the wire with the title on the line.”

The story of UNC’s tournament came from standout freshman Ben Griffin. Griffin finished 10 under par, which placed him at third in the individual player leaderboard. He shot 2-under in the final round to help keep the Tar Heels in the hunt for the title until the very end.

“Individually, if I do well it helps the team at the same time,” Griffin said. “I do the best I can to try and win individually, but I can’t complain with third.”

Sapp saw Griffin’s performance as a confidence-builder for the team.

“We are really excited that Ben got another top-five (finish),” he said. “It helps the team and helps build the confidence of everybody. Success overflows into other guys.”

Griffin, just like his coach, looked at the good things his team did during the tournament as opposed to its shortcomings.

“We played pretty well this week and had a lot of guys post good numbers,” Griffin said. “We just couldn’t quite pull through, but we didn’t have any scores that were super low.”

The Tar Heels had two other golfers place in the top-20 for the tournament. Sophomore Carter Jenkins finished tied for 12th-place at 4 under par, and sophomore Henry Do finished in 16th-place at 3 under par.

“We played pretty solid all week and our guys hung in there,” Do said. “We were in contention with four to five holes left to play.”

An underlying reason for the Tar Heels being content with their weekend was the rain that plagued the final day of the tournament. Staying focused was also a key for UNC in the final round.

“We had to stay patient out there in the rain and keep on grinding,” Do said.

Sapp added that UNC needed to just “relax” and “know that (it's) been there before."

The Tar Heels are holding their heads high after the tournament, but they know they can improve.

“There’s a lot to take away,” Sapp said.

sports@dailytarheel.com