UNC men's golf finishes 14th in Puerto Rico Classic

Heading down to Rio Grande, Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rico Classic, the North Carolina men’s golf team had high hopes.

After closing the fall season with a first-place finish at the Bridgestone Golf Collegiate, the Tar Heels were looking for a similar result to open the spring campaign in a loaded field including the top two ranked teams in the country, Georgia Tech and Alabama.

But after a second-to-last 14th place finish in the three-day tournament, the team left the Caribbean with more questions than answers.

For coach Andrew Sapp, the weekend was disappointing and caught him by surprise, especially after the progress the team had shown in the fall and in the offseason.

“It wasn’t really what we expected coming down here,” he said of the performance. “We were hoping really to make good use of the opportunity, and we didn’t quite do it.”

Out of 15 total rounds during the tournament, the Tar Heels were only able to break par in the first round with freshman Davis Bateman’s 69, and in the final round with Henry Do’s 68.

For the weekend, the team was lead by Do and Bateman again, who finished tied 30th and tied 40th, respectively. The freshman duo was followed by juniors Bailey Patrick, Brandon Dalinka, and sophomore Keagan Cummings, who all finished at nine over or worse.

With no seniors playing for the Tar Heels, Sapp was pleased with the youth movement.

“It’s great to have young players step in and play well right away,” he said. “But you want your other guys to perform as well.”

For Bateman, who actually led the tournament for a brief period, the weekend went well as far as how he and team played, which made the low scores that much more disappointing.

“It’s extremely frustrating,” he said. “Knowing the scores I was putting up in qualifying, and seeing the scores I finished with, it doesn’t make a golfer too happy.”

Do was also discouraged with the scores, even with his third round 68 to salvage the tournament.

“I think we were just overthinking things,” he said. “We were worrying too much about the greens and the wind and lost sight of our main goal.”

But this isn’t the team’s first taste of disappointment. In fact, its aforementioned triumph at the Bridgestone Classic came only a month after a similar performance at the Jack Nicklaus invitational in Columbus, Ohio, where the Tar Heels finished in last place.

“These guys have proven to be resilient before,” Sapp said. “So we’ve got to rely on that and really just improve our toughness.”

For Bateman, despite the tough tournament, heading into the next tournament, the weekend will be long gone.

“Team-wise, we’re not thrilled about it,” he said. “But everyone played well to qualify for the tournament, so, I don’t think it hurt us too bad.”