After a three-month break, the North Carolina women’s golf team hoped to start the new year with a strong performance after ending its fall season with a 14th-place finish in the Landfall Tradition.
And in their first tournament of the spring, the Tar Heels saw some improvement — but Coach Jan Mann believes there's still plenty of room to grow.
UNC traveled to Palos Verdes, Calif., to participate in the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, where North Carolina finished 14th overall a season ago. In their return, the Tar Heels started out strong but ultimately tied for eighth with Oklahoma State after struggling in the final two rounds.
North Carolina finished the tournament with a combined score of 901 — good for 49-over-par — and was 43 shots behind tournament champion Washington.
First-year Kelly Whaley led the way for UNC throughout the tournament by scoring a 71 on Sunday before following it up with a 75 and 77 on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
Whaley finished the tournament with a 10-over-par score of 223, which tied her with Wanasa Zhou of Arizona and Celine Boutier of Duke for 28th place.
Sophomore Lexi Harkins scored the team's best single-round score with a 68 on Sunday, but scores of 83 and 78 on Monday and Tuesday relegated her to a tie for 41st place with three other players.
UNC's strength was on par-5 holes, where the Tar Heels finished at even par for the tournament. But North Carolina struggled on par-3 holes, cumulating an average score of 3.64 — or 36-over-par — during the tournament.
Despite the struggles, Whaley was able to prevent the Tar Heels from obtaining a worse score by tallying 38 pars, which were tied for the most during the tournament.
