UNC men's golf has a rough start to the season

With two new players and no head coach to guide them, the North Carolina men’s golf team saw a rough start to their season this weekend.

Coach Andrew Sapp stayed in Chapel Hill due to surgery as his five-man team traveled to Rocky Face, Ga., for the Carpet Capital Collegiate.

Assistant coach Andrew DiBitetto, who went in his stead, said that Sapp’s absence was tough for the team.

“It was not the greatest, to be honest,” DiBitetto said. “But that was to be expected.”

North Carolina tied for 11th place this weekend. Texas finished atop the 15-team leaderboard with a 13-under-par finish for the entire tournament, five strokes ahead of second-place Georgia.

North Carolina posted 886 — 22 over par — for the weekend.

DiBitetto expected difficulties for the team due to a period of adjustment: Freshman Keagan Cummings and junior Andy Knox are new to the roster this year.

Senior Michael McGowan had the best finish among the Tar Heels with a 4-under 212 total score for the weekend, earning him the 8th spot in the field.

“Overall, I had a good start, but the final day didn’t go as well as I was hoping,” said McGowan. He posted a 2-over 74 in the final round Sunday.

Individual champion Brandon Stone of Texas only outplayed McGowan by eight strokes throughout the three days of play. He had a six-shot advantage on McGowan in the second round alone.

McGowan said his team would need to cultivate a more focused mentality to advance deeper in tournament play.

“We were playing well through six holes, but then something happened. Everyone just started playing poorly, making bogeys. We just kept dropping back,” McGowan said of the final round Sunday.
“We need to work on mentality. When things were going well we just slouched. We didn’t try to do better the next shot,“ McGowan said.

Fellow senior Patrick Barrett finished in 40th place with a 7-over 223, and sophomore Brandon Dalinka rounded out the five-man lineup with an 8-over 224, tied for 45th place.

Freshman Cummings posted the second-lowest Sunday round for the Tar Heels at a 3-over 75.

But DiBitetto was not demoralized by the rough start to the season, and he said he is looking forward to the quick turnaround before the Tar Heels host the Tar Heel Intercollegiate next weekend.

“We’ll have a few days to evaluate some things. We’re a comfortable team at home,” DiBitetto said.

But McGowan had a more blunt take on the weekend: “It was a bad finish to a long day and a long week.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.