Bray Paves Own Way to Success

In life, there come moments when decisions are made and things get sacrificed. In making a choice, other possibilities are eliminated. These moments can be followed by a large reward, a lifetime of regret or anything in between.

For North Carolina's Dustin Bray, the decision was to focus on golf.

And now he's receiving the payoff.

Bray won the individual title at last week's ACC Tournament, firing rounds of 66, 67 and 72 to finish 11-under-par.

Not long ago, Bray was just another kid that played a different sport every season.

"When he was young, he was involved in all kinds of sports," said Randy Bray, Dustin's father. "He would play baseball. He would play golf during the fall and basketball in the winter."

During his sophomore year of high school, the decision to focus on golf came, one Randy Bray said left people disappointed.

"In our particular area, baseball's a big thing," he said. "A lot of people hated to see him drop out of baseball because they thought he had potential."

His father said Bray was a finesse pitcher who lost just two games while winning about 50 during his youth.

But for all of Bray's abilities, golf has always held a certain lure for him.

"I don't know why," Bray said. "I guess it's just because it's such a natural thing for me."

Bray said he's been playing golf since he was four, and his parents didn't push it over other sports.

"It was all me," he said. "I only went (to the golf course) when I wanted to. I loved it since the day I started."

During the summer, Bray's parents would drop him off at the golf course on their way to work and pick him up on their way home. But as Bray grew older, their ability to help his game progress became limited.

"I had taken him as far as I could take him," Randy Bray said. "Dustin did a lot of the things himself. He would read books, and he would pick up whatever things he could in our club from the players that were a little better."

So in the seventh grade, Bray began taking lessons from Harvie Ward Jr., a UNC alumnus who is considered to be among the best amateur golfers ever.

Ward gave Bray the knowledge that came with a British Amateur title, a Canadian Amateur title and two U.S. Amateur championships in the 1950s.

"He knows a lot about the game through his own experiences and his own victories," Bray said. "And that where he's really been able to help me kind of talk through the more difficult parts of the game and a lot of middle things."

Those close to Bray, who is ranked No. 20 in the country, said what separates him from his opponents is his extreme ability to focus.

"He doesn't see the people he's playing against, whether they're an All-American or maybe not as good," said teammate Brad Moldin.

That focus has helped Bray to four top-10 finishes during UNC's spring season.

UNC coach John Inman said Dustin's confidence in this area has developed greatly over the last two years.

"He feels like he's supposed to win," Inman said. "He won't put it in anyone's face, but he believes it."

But for those rare times he doesn't, Bray turns to another slice of Americana: fishing.

"I could care less if I catch anything or not," he said. "It's just the fact that I'm out in nature. I don't have anything to worry about. I'm just sitting there. I can just think about anything I want to. But a lot of times I don't. I'm just there."

With exams and regional and national tournaments coming up, Bray is not looking beyond the next few weeks. He said he'll wait until after the season to sit back and look at what he's done and where he wants to go. Moldin said the ability to readjust his goals is one of Dustin's strong points.

Bray will continue to head toward what Inman calls his "unlimited potential" and future successes with an almost carefree attitude.

"I've never thought of golf as being a real difficult thing," Bray said. "It's one of those things that I've always enjoyed and I've had a good time doing, and success has just followed up with that."

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.