University of North Carolina Athletics
Men's Golf Finishes Fifth At ACC Championships
April 21, 2002 | Men's Golf
April 21, 2002
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NEW LONDON, N.C. -- Georgia Tech closed with a flourish here today to successfully defend its Atlantic Coast Conference men's golf championship with a four-shot margin over surprising NC State, and North Carolina's Dustin Bray held on to take the individual crown by two strokes.
"This is the one (tounament) I've wanted to win," Bray said. "Now that I'm done, I'll tell you - this is the one I've wanted to win since I was 10 years old. You start here - this is one stepping stone and to do it in my sophomore year, I'm extremely happy."
ray, the Tar Heel sophomore from Asheboro who had a three-shot lead after posting rounds of 66-67 the first two days finished up with an even par round to finish at 11-under-par 205. He had only one birdie today after getting 13 birdies the first two days.
"I feel alright about my round (even par 72)," said Bray. "It was real boring - that pretty much sums it up. My putter kinda shut off on me today - don't know if it was nerves or just misreads - probably a little of both.
"It feels great," Bray continued. "It's a huge confidence booster. Last year going in the first round I played with the #1 and #3 players in the nation and shot 67 with them and then struggled the rest of the tournament."
Weibring and Thompson tied for second in the individual chase with 207s. Garth Mulroy of NC State and Bill Haas of Wake Forest tied for fifth at 208. Mulroy and Wake Forest's Jay Morgan had the day's lowest rounds of 67. Nineteen of the 45 players finished under-par for the 54-hole championship.
The Yellow Jackets who led wire-to-wire over the 54-hole event had to pull out all the stops down the stretch to capture their eighth tem title since becoming a member of the ACC in 1979. This was Georgia Tech's third championship over the past four years.
Tech had a five-shot lead over Clemson going into today's final round, but found itself in a tight battle with NC State and Clemson going into the closing stages. At one point, with just two holes to play, the Wolfpack had a one-shot lead and Georgia Tech and Clemson were tied.
On the final hole, the tough par-five, 568-yard dogleg left, the five Tech players finished with two pars, one birdie and two eagles. After Kris Mikkelsen made the birdie, Matt Weibring and freshman Nicholas Thompson posted back-to-back eagles to decide the championship.
Georgia Tech finished 27 strokes under par at 837 while NC State, which had the day's best score at 274, finished 23 shots under par at 841. Clemson finished third at 845 and Wake Forest fourth at 851. North Carolina was fifth at 862 followed by Florida State at 868, Virginia at 874, Maryland at 875 and Duke at 878.
"The great thing about these guys is that they were able to hang and hang even though NC State ran at them all day," Georgia Tech Coach Bruce Heppler said after the championship was decided.
Players Mentioned
