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The Daily Tar Heel

UNC women's golf finishes tied for sixth at Allstate Tournament to open spring season

The North Carolina women’s golf team finished tied for sixth place in the Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate, its first tournament in the spring season that wrapped up on Tuesday. 

What happened? 

In a tournament Tulane hosted against 16 other teams, the Tar Heels played well facing six of the top-25 ranked teams in the Golfstat poll. 

The Tar Heel golfers for the tournament were Kelly Whalen, Brynn Walker, Ava Bergner, Bryana Nguyen and Mariana Ocano. After the first round, the team combined for a score of four-over-par, good enough for third place. In the second round, the Tar Heels shot an 11-over par, which moved them down to fourth place and seven strokes away from the lead. 

After the third round, North Carolina dropped a few more places down to sixth in a tie with LSU. Florida won the tournament with a nine-over-par score overall.

Who stood out? 

Whaley stood out as the highest finishing Tar Heel in a six way tie for 11th place. After a three-over-par finish in both the first and second round, she parred the third round for a strong finish. 

Brynn Walker was not far behind Whaley. Walker shot an even par the first round, a three-over-par in the second round, then faltered some in the last round to an eight-over-par overall score for 20th place. 

Ava Bergner also played well for the Tar Heels. In the first round, Bergner shot a 72 par, which landed her in a tie for 16th place with Walker. In the next round, she shot a four-under-par and moved up into a tie for eighth place and a one-over-par overall score. She finished at an eight-over-par for 22nd place and had 12 of the team's 40 birdies. 

When was it decided? 

Though the Tar Heels were only a few strokes from the lead for much of the tournament, they never had a great chance at taking over the lead. Florida, the eventual top-finisher, held a solid lead over the rest of the field in all three rounds and ended 24 shots ahead of North Carolina. 

Why does it matter? 

The Tar Heels opened the spring season with a sixth place finish, its second highest finish in the 2017-18 schedule so far. The team started out the spring season on a good note, and can continue to build on a solid finish with another strong performance in its next tournament in March.

When do they play next? 

The Tar Heels will compete next in the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in South Carolina, on March 2-4. 

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