The North Carolina women’s golf team had a busy regular season, traveling as far as California for tournaments. All of those rounds and hours on the range helped the Tar Heels place third this past weekend at the ACC Championships.
The Tar Heels had a tough time catching up to Virginia, who even Coach Jan Mann complemented, saying the team played some strong golf throughout the weekend.
“I don’t know if they were playing a different golf course or what,” Mann said. “But my team, I felt like they played very solid golf, and I was very proud of how they performed.”
Duke was 26 shots behind the eventual winner Virginia. Virginia won with a combined score of 837, good for 27-under-par at the event. Carolina played some solid golf during the 54-hole event, which was held at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., a 6,082-yard course.
Sedgefield had some winter damage on the course, just like a lot of courses in the Southeast. After a practice round in the rain, the Tar Heels took the course Friday and found some better conditions.
Leslie Cloots finished 17th overall with a 2-over-par score of 218, but two freshman led the way for UNC. Bryana Nguyen and Lexi Harkins both finished tied for 11th overall.
Harkins shot a 1-over-par 73 in the final round after shooting 71 in each of the first two rounds to finish at 1-under-par overall. She triple-bogeyed once in her final round, but she also had three birdies on the day.
“I think we’re all very proud of how we did because we all played well,” Harkins said. “It wasn’t just one of us, so I think we’re all proud of how we did as a team.”
Nguyen agreed, saying that the team definitely gained some confidence. Nguyen shot 4-under-par in the final round. After bogeying the first hole, she made five birdies and carded a 68 for the day.
