University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
NCAA Championships
UNC Records Best NCAA Championships Finish Since 2011
May 23, 2017 | Women's Golf
Sugar Grove, Ill. – A valiant Tar Heel comeback on Monday fell inches short at the NCAA Championships. Carolina shot an 8-over par 296, the team's best round of the week by 14 shots and finished in ninth place. The team missed out on NCAA match play competition by one shot after Kent State got up and down from a bunker on the 18th hole to save par.
Carolina opened with a front nine that featured six birdies, the same amount they had in their entire round on Friday and more than they had all day on Sunday.
"First of all, I was really proud of the team, how they hung in there today," said head coach Jan Mann. "On the morning wave we had the second lowest round. They played really gutsy golf. We came up just a little bit short."
Junior Lexi Harkins shot 73 to finish for 24th. Sophomore Kelly Whaley shot 74 with a crucial birdie on the 18th hole to finish tied for 45th. Junior Bryana Nguyen also shot 74 to finish tied for 66th. Freshman Brynn Walker shot 77 to finish tied for 74th.
"It's bittersweet," Mann concluded about the end of Carolina's season. "Of course we have Leslie as a senior leaving and this was Leah's (Associate Head Coach Leah Buchmann) last tournament. She and her husband are moving to Wisconsin; he has accepted a position there and she is expecting another child any moment now. I'm very happy for Leah and also very sad. We've been together since 2003, when she played for me at Virginia. Then when she was on Tour she lived with us. So, she's like a daughter to me. That's tough."
Senior Leslie Cloots, playing in her last event as a Tar Heel before beginning her professional career on the Symetra Tour, shot 75. She finishes the event tied for 32nd. This season will have been the third straight she led the Tar Heels in stroke average. Her stroke average this season of 73.70 is good enough for the third best single-season average in Carolina women's golf history.
"We're really excited for Leslie and her professional career. I think she's going to do very well; we certainly want to support her as much as we can. But she's going to find a lot of success," said Mann.
The ninth place finish is the second best finish under head coach Jan Mann, and the best since the 2011 NCAA Championship where Carolina finished tied for eighth.
"We had ups and downs throughout the season. But we really came on strong at the end. It's been a good year. Number one I love this team. They play their best when they're having fun. This team can have a lot of fun. But they are very gutsy and they don't ever give up. That was evident throughout this week with the weather conditions, they didn't complain. They just stayed on course and I'm looking forward to next year with this group that's staying. I think we're going to get bigger and better." said Mann.
