The North Carolina women’s golf team kicked off its spring season on Monday and Tuesday at the Central District Invitational in St. Lucie, Fla. Despite finishing fourth out of 14 teams, the Tar Heels were not satisfied with the results.
Sophomore Kelly Whaley and junior Bryana Nguyen paced the team, both finishing with a three round score of 221, 5-over par, to tie for seventh individually.
“I was disappointed for them because they had really worked hard and prepared and thought we would perform better than we did,” head coach Jan Mann said. “It was a very tight golf course. They actually hit the ball well, but where we fell short was from 100 yards in.”
North Carolina competed in the first two rounds of play on Monday. Whaley led the team in the first round, tallying three birdies to finish at an even-par 72. UNC’s team score of 298, 10-over par, placed them in fifth place headed into the second round of the day.
“I worked really hard the past week on short shots and I had actually played the course over Christmas break so I knew what to expect,” Whaley said. “I think that helped.”
“I felt really confident going into it because I knew the sort of shots I needed to hit.”
Nguyen stood out for the Tar Heels in the second round. She fired in the day’s only eagle en route to a score of one-over par at 73. Nguyen’s performance helped North Carolina to score a 13-over par 301 that moved the team up one place in the standings.
Headed into Tuesday’s final round, UNC sat in fourth place at 23-over par, 28 strokes behind leader Furman. Though the Tar Heels put up a good fight, the stroke differential proved too much to overcome.
Whaley, Nguyen, and senior Leslie Cloots all shot 2-over par 74s in the round. But this wasn’t enough for North Carolina to overtake Furman, which finished the tournament with a score of 864, good for even par.
