Tar Heels not up to par in invite tournament

Just hours after witnessing his team’s last place finish at the Jack Nicklaus Invitational, North Carolina men’s golf coach Andrew Sapp struggled to find a way to explain the performance.

“Were there any bright spots? No, not really,” Sapp said.

“It was shocking that everybody could play this badly at one time.”

The Tar Heels’ final tally of 66 strokes-over-par was the worst mark in the 12-team event, hosted by Ohio State. UNC finished 76 strokes behind No. 16 California, whose 10-under-par mark earned them the tournament title.

After a fifth place finish at Carpet Capital Collegiate in Georgia and a fourth place at the Tar Heel Intercollegiate in September, Sapp said he certainly did not expect his squad to be returning to Chapel Hill with a last-place finish.

“We felt like we could compete with any of the other teams there,” the third-year coach said.

“You want to go out there and compete with everybody, including some of the best teams in the country.”

No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 25 Oklahoma State rounded out the tournament’s top three, finishing at 9-over and 11-over, respectively. Ohio State finished eighth on its home course with a mark of 47-over.

“Every year you’re going to have one or two horrendous tournaments,” Sapp said.

“We just hope this was the only one.”

Sophomore Keagan Cummings shared his coach’s displeasure for the outcome of the tournament.

“Once things start going poorly, it’s easy for them to snowball,” Cummings said.

A native of Ireland, Cummings led the Tar Heels with a score of 12-over-par. He finished at even par in his first round and ended up tied for 31st overall out of 60 golfers on the individual leaderboard.

The lack of a Tar Heel near the top of the leaderboard was one of the main reasons for the team’s struggles in Ohio, according to Sapp.

“When we played well at Carpet Capital, we had a guy winning the tournament,” Sapp said. “When we played well at Tar Heel, we had a guy finish fourth. When you have guys competing to win the individual title, as a team you’ll play well.

“This week, we didn’t have anyone finish in the top half of the field.”

Despite the disappointing performance, Cummings said the team is eager to get back on the course in two weeks at the Rod Myers Intercollegiate, which will be played at Duke.

“We know we’re a really good team and good teams have bad performances,” Cummings said.

“Next we have Duke. If our five guys are playing well, there’s no reason we can’t win that tournament.”

Until then, however, the Tar Heels will have to live with their performance at the Nicklaus Invitational.

“When you have multiple guys playing poorly, sometimes they all join in and play poorly together,” Sapp said.

“Unfortunately, sometimes golf is contagious, whether it’s good or bad. And this time it was bad.”

sports@dailytarheel.com