KANNAPOLIS — Disappointment was the story of the weekend for the North Carolina men’s golf team as they finished tied for ninth at the Club at Irish Creek.
After leaving his third shot in the greenside bunker on his 17th hole Sunday, Sean Jacklin was visibly frustrated on his way to carding a double bogey. The double negated the eagle he made just three holes earlier.
On the par-4 fourth hole, Jacklin holed out from the fairway for an eagle 2.
“It’s a par-4 down the hill then it comes back up,” he said. “So I couldn’t see it. I just landed it behind the hole and it sucked back in …. Other than that, I made a couple birdies coming in.”
Included in those birdies he made on his way to a team-low 69 was his final hole of the tournament, the par-3 eighth hole.
The eighth hole is the third of a trio of holes on the front side that have greens on the bank of Kannapolis Lake. The 179-yard hole is protected by a greenside bunker to the right, and the pin was pushed back to the top tier of a green that slopes front-to-back.
Jacklin, like his teammate in the group in front of him, Clark Palmer, muscled up to reach the shelf on the back of the green. Jacklin’s approach landed right of the pin and trickled toward the hole. He drained the birdie putt from about eight feet to end the tournament.
Jacklin, a freshman, was one of the few highlights in an otherwise mediocre performance for the Tar Heels with just one tournament left before the ACC Championships.
“The team is just struggling — we can’t seem to get on the same page on a given day,” Jacklin said.
