William Register came within one stroke of an individual first place title, but ultimately fell in a playoff as the North Carolina men’s golf team got its spring season underway with a sixth place finish at the Sea Best Invitational this week.
What happened?
The Dye Valley course at the famed TPC Sawgrass Resort played host to 14 teams from across the country on Monday and Tuesday, as the Tar Heels returned to competitive play for the first time since October.
The team got off to a solid start in the first round with Register leading the way. The senior fired a flawless, five-under-par 65 that featured five birdies and no bogeys. It was a career best round for the Burlington, N.C., native, who ended the day in first place in the individual standings. First-year Ryan Gerard also played well, posting a solid three-under-par 67. As a team, UNC finished the day in sixth place with a cumulative score of one-over par.
Day Two saw the Tar Heels improve slightly as a team over day one, with Gerard, Register, and senior Ben Griffin each posting one-under 69. The team ended with a cumulative score of one-under par, leapfrogging North Florida to finish the round in fifth place on the team leaderboard. Sitting just 11 shots back of first place, UNC was in prime position heading into the third and final round.
In the end, however, the final 18 holes proved to be a disappointment. No North Carolina player was able to break par and the team finished the day with a cumulative 10-over-par score to fall back into sixth place.
Register led the Tar Heels once again in the final round, hanging tough over the course of an up-and-down day. He started off with a birdie on the first hole, before quickly giving a shot back on the third. After three straight pars on holes four through six, he embarked on a wild stretch to finish his tournament in which he made just four pars over the course of the final 12 holes.
An eagle on the short par-four seventh hole brought him back to two-under on the day, but bogeys on holes nine and eleven brought him right back to square one. He birdied the 12th, but then made a costly double-bogey on the 14th that put his tournament hopes in jeopardy.
Register rallied, however, with back-to-back birdies on holes 15 and 16 to revive his chances. After a par on the penultimate hole, he came to the 18th needing just a par to seal first place. Unfortunately for him, he could only manage a bogey, sending the tournament to a three-way playoff for first place between Register, Lipscomb University’s Eric Ansett, and Liberty’s Ervin Chang. It only took one hole for the playoff to be decided, with Chang making a par to secure first-place honors.
