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University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Begin Spring Play at Sea Best
February 6, 2017 | Men's Golf
After a strong fall featuring top-five finishes in each of their four events, the Carolina men's golf team is looking forward to its first event of the spring. Monday, the Tar Heels begin a two-day event at the TPC Valley Sawgrass Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., in the 2017 Sea Best Invitational.
The Tar Heels began their season in Durham in September with three top-10 individual finishes and a fourth-place team performance.
Carolina traveled to Olympia Fields, Ill., to play against a strong field, featuring eight top-25 teams, and a difficult course. Carolina battled back from a rough opening 18 holes to again finish in fourth place. Josh Martin posted his second straight top-ten finish.
After a weather cancellation of the Primland Collegiate Invitational, Carolina returned home to UNC Finley Golf Course and the Tar Heel Intercollegiate. Zach Martin and his brother, Josh, led Carolina to a runner-up finish.
UNC placed fifth in the final team competition of the fall, the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational. William Register continued his consistent play by shooting 7-under par over the final 36 holes to place in the top five. Every one one of Register's 11 rounds in the four events counted towards the Carolina team score.
The same weekend as the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational, Jose Montaño won his third career event and his first as a Tar Heel at the Elon Invitational.
Now, all eyes turn towards the spring schedule and trips to Florida, Puerto Rico, California, Texas, the ACC Championships in South Carolina, and the NCAA Championships.
How did the team get ready? While Register worked on scoring, Griffin emphasized regaining lost confidence, saying, “I played in one tournament over the winter which helped me boost my confidence a little bit after I didn't play as great as I wanted to this fall. I've been going through a grip change so I wanted to get more consistent with that and so far it has been working pretty well.”
Head Coach Andrew Sapp says, “As a team we have been getting into the competitive mode by playing a lot of golf. We have been blessed with great weather in January and have been able to play eight rounds of qualifying for our first tournament and we have seen a lot of rounds in the 60s which has been encouraging.”
To set expectations, a team must create goals. For UNC, those team goals are similar to their competitors in the ACC and NCAA, but to overcome those competitors the individuals within the team need to succeed. Sapp asked each player to come up with a few goals of their own.
Register's goals include earning All-America or All-ACC honors and winning at least one tournament.
For Griffin, it's about the process – “Keep doing what I'm doing, stick to my practice plan, dedicating certain times to practice hard for tournaments. My goal is to win at least once; I won twice freshman year and I haven't won since.”
Griffin says he's excited to travel to Texas A&M for the first time to compete in The Aggie Invitational. Register is looking forward to playing the third straight year in the Puerto Rico Classic and then traveling to California over spring break for the Lamkin Grips San Diego Classic.
Griffin says the challenging schedule makes it fun to challenge themselves. Sapp agrees saying, “We love to play against the best teams in the country.”
That journey begins on Monday. Griffin, Montaño, Register, freshman Austin Hitt, and Zach Martin will tee off for the Tar Heels at the Sea Best Invitational. Senior Henry Do will also be competing as an individual.
Carolina is ranked 13th by Golfstat and 19th by Golfweek. The Tar Heel are joined in the Jacksonville area event by the University of Florida, which is ranked No. 2 in the nation by Golfstat and No. 3 by Golfweek.
The Tar Heel players are motivated by disappointing performances in the NCAA Tournament the last two years, but Sapp says confidently the team has moved past that.
“That was the rare time last year when all five players played horribly at the same time, but this is a new team, a new year. Those who played in that event learned their individual lessons. This team has the talent and depth to win any tournament they compete in this spring.”
To stay in match shape, the team has been playing more qualifying events. “We've had a lot more qualifying for the five spots which keeps us sharp,” says Register. “Sometimes we can get into a lull if you have five guys you know are going to play every time.”
“I think we have a pretty good chance this year,” says Griffin. “This is one of the closest teams I've had since being at UNC. We're pushing each other to be as good as we can. We have the capability to make a good run at ACCs, it's about playing well at the right time. The past couple of years we have not played great in the postseason, so we have to make sure we hit our stride at the right time.”
To Sapp, all that matters is the next tournament, one round at a time.
“All of our tournaments this spring are great, but we need to take them one at a time in an effort to prepare for each one. We definitely go to some nice places, but right now I am looking forward to the Sea Best Invitational the most because it is the next one on the calendar.”
For daily recaps of the Tar Heels performance, return to GoHeels.com. To follow live scoring, visit golfstatresults.com.
– by Conor Lynch, UNC Athletic Communications
