On Friday morning, as the sun rose over Old North State Golf Club in New London, N.C., the North Carolina men’s golf team was full of high hopes.
As the ACC championships teed off, the Tar Heels had a chance to accomplish their season-long goal — qualifying for the NCAA tournament. The Tar Heels said they believed a top-two finish at ACCs would earn them a regional berth.
By Sunday afternoon though, the picture had become bleak. It was cold, windy and rainy, and the Tar Heels found themselves in seventh place after finishing their last round of the three-day tournament.
The Tar Heels shot 10-over-par on the final day to finish with a total score of 867.
“We definitely wanted to play better than finishing seventh,” head coach Andrew Sapp said. “We had a good start to the tournament after the first day, but then we stuttered a little bit yesterday and today.”
Junior Michael McGowan and redshirt junior Patrick Barrett paced the Tar Heels, finishing tied for 18th and tied for 21st respectively.
McGowan started strong with a three-under-par 69 in the first round, but lost ground on day two by shooting four strokes over par.
“There were highs and lows,” McGowan said of his performance. “My middle round was pretty bad. It was one of those weeks where I had two out of three good rounds, but in college golf you need three for three. So, overall I was a little disappointed, but there’s always room to build on.”
Georgia Tech claimed the ACC title with a dominant performance. The Yellow Jackets’ 27-under-par 837 was seven strokes ahead of second-place Virginia.
