UNC women’s golf places second at ACC championships

On days two and three of the ACC women’s golf championship, No. 6 North Carolina and No. 8 Duke were in a dead heat. Both recorded 595 strokes on Saturday and Sunday.

Unfortunately for UNC, it was a three-day tournament.

Though both teams played their best rounds Friday, Duke’s players were able to put up enough spectacular rounds to build an imposing 10-shot lead after the first day.

The Blue Devils held on throughout the weekend to deny UNC back-to-back conference championships. The Tar Heels finished second with 885 strokes to Duke’s 875 to complete 270 holes of golf at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro.

“We felt very confident in the possibility of repeating, but it didn’t happen for us,” coach Jan Mann said. “Duke played very well that first day, and we played fairly even with them after that, but it was hard to catch up.”

Mann said tough greens and less-than-stellar play on the longer holes, specifically closer to the flag, allowed Duke to pull away Friday.

UNC lost seven strokes to the Blue Devils on par-5 holes.

But apart from that first day, UNC’s five golfers held their own against Duke’s. Casey Grice put up the Tar Heels’ best round of the weekend on Sunday, shooting a 1-under-par 70. Even on Friday, Katherine Perry and Allie White shot even-par 71’s.

But none of that was enough to compete with Blue Devil and individual champion Lindy Duncan’s 3-under-par 210 through 54 holes.

It didn’t help that UNC’s No. 3 player, Jackie Chang, recorded scores greater than 80 on Saturday and Sunday. But the Tar Heels’ No. 5, Allie White, stepped up to finish sixth overall, two strokes behind Grice.

Though UNC didn’t emerge with a title, the season isn’t done. The Tar Heels now have nearly a month — until May 10 — to study and fine-tune their games for regional competition.

But Mann said that having that time off might not do her team any favors.

“My biggest concern is just staying competitive and in that tournament mode,” she said. “I am concerned about having that much time off.

“Hopefully the guys are going to make it to regionals, and if so, the men’s coach and I have talked about doing some play between the guys and the girls. But we’ll have to be pretty creative in keeping them in that competitive mode.”

Last year UNC was runner-up in the NCAA’s East Regional, before going on to finish eighth at the national tournament.

“We’ll continue working on the things we’ve been working on all year long,” Mann said. “The majority of that is short game, just working on putting, chipping, pitching and then keeping their golf swings in good shape.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.