After a seventh-place finish at the Rod Myers Invitational last week, the North Carolina men’s golf team looked to bounce back this past weekend at the Olympia Fields Fighting Illini Invitational. The Tar Heels finished fourth overall in the 16-team tournament thanks to solid final rounds from a couple of UNC’s key players.
What happened?
North Carolina was in the middle of the pack at ninth coming off of a rough start in the first day of the tournament, shooting 286 collectively for a 6-over-par round.
The second day of the tournament saw UNC jump up to fourth place despite a similar performance with a 7-over-par round for a score of 287. Significant scoring drops by Texas, Florida State and California allowed the Tar Heels to move up on the leaderboard.
North Carolina played its best round on Sunday, shooting a collective 3-over-par and finishing the tournament with a total 16-over-par. The Tar Heels finished the tournament in fourth, a noticeable improvement from their seventh-place finish in the Rod Myers Invitational in Durham.
“I think the best post-Duke tournament thing was the fact that we got to very quickly turn around and get right back into competition," head coach Andrew DiBitetto said. "If you had a sour taste in your mouth, you got the opportunity to correct that very quickly.”
Who stood out?
North Carolina senior Austin Hitt posted the best score for North Carolina, finishing tied for seventh place at 1-over-par for the weekend. Hitt closed out the tournament with an excellent final round, shooting a 2-under-par for a score of 68 on Sunday.
"The great thing about him and a lot of our guys is that they have a tremendous work ethic," DiBitetto said. "Shortly after the Duke tournament, we were back at our facility, back on the range with Hitt and we were able to identify the things in his swing that he needed to correct."
