After a regular season that included seven top-five finishes, the North Carolina men’s golf team came into the ACC Championship with high expectations.
But the Tar Heels were unable to live up to these expectations, finishing tied with Virginia for eighth out of 12 teams at the Old North State Club in New London, N.C.
Despite improved play on the competition’s second and third days, a 7-over-par on Friday proved to be too big of a deficit for UNC, which finished 6-over-par for the weekend.
“(It was) pretty bad; we didn’t play well in the first round,” Coach Andrew Sapp said. “Might have been nerves, might have been bad ball striking.”
“We got off to a bad start on the first four holes, which are kind of the easier holes on the golf course. You have to attack those early, and we went the opposite direction and just couldn’t catch up.”
None of North Carolina’s five golfers shot under par in the first round, as the team recorded a 295 and sat in ninth place after Friday.
Junior Carter Jenkins had the team's best performance on the day, finishing with an even par score of 72 to tie for 18th place.
Spurred on by sophomore William Register’s four birdies, UNC improved its score by two strokes on the tournament’s second day.
Register finished 3-under-par on Saturday, but the sophomore was the only golfer to succesfully chip away at his team's deficit. He was the only Tar Heel to finish under par.
