UNC Opens ACC Championship In Red Figures For First Time

Thursday, April 13

at Pawleys Island, S.C.

All Day

North Carolina

ACC Championship

April 13, 2017 | Women's Golf

By: UNC Athletic Communications

Pawleys Island, S.C. – Carolina recorded their best team score to start an ACC Championship since 2004 on Thursday with a 1-under par 287, putting themselves into a tie for third place. The Tar Heels were led by junior Bryana Nguyen who used five birdies in her last six holes to shoot up the leaderboard and finish the day tied for the individual lead with Golfstat's number one golfer in the country, Leona Maguire of Duke.

Before her late round tear, Nguyen was scrambling according to head coach Jan Mann, “She was struggling just a touch off the tee and so I started walking with her. We just worked on slowing things down a little bit and that definitely helped. But her putter, she made some fantastic putts, her putting was just awesome.” Nguyen's 68 matches the best round of her career and is her third round in the 60s this April. Before this month she had a total of two career rounds that broke 70.

Senior Leslie Cloots and top five finisher at the 2016 ACC Championship shot a 2-under par 70 that has her tied for sixth after the first round. Cloots had her third birdie of the day on No. 10 before finishing out her round with eight straight pars.

Sophomore Kelly Whaley shot a 1-over par 73. Freshman Brynn Walker and junior Lexi Harkins both shot matching 4-over par 76s. Notably, Harkins recovered from a quadruple bogey on the ninth hole to shoot a 1-under par 35 on the back nine. Coach Mann thought Harkins showed resiliency down the stretch, “Lexi made a great comeback after the 9th hole. It's hard to stay mentally tough after a bad hole but very proud of how she stayed patient. It shows that she didn't let a score distract her from sticking to her process and playing the course.”

#10 Duke leads after day one at 4-under par and holds a one shot lead over #19 Miami. Hot on their tails is a group at 1-under that includes Carolina, #4 Florida State, and #41 Clemson.

Individually, Nguyen and Maguire, the 2015 ACC Medalist, are tied for the lead. One shot behind the two are Kim Metraux of Florida State, Sierra Sims of Wake Forest, and Renate Grimstad of Miami. A group of seven that includes Cloots is two shots back.

This is the first time that Carolina has opened the ACC Championship under-par. This year is the 29^th edition of the tournament.

The Tar Heels are attempting to win their third ACC title and first since 2011.

The three-day event is being played at the Reserve Golf Club of Pawleys Island in South Carolina for the first time.

Carolina will be paired with NC State and Clemson tomorrow morning for the second round. The teams will tee off No. 1 from 9:40 a.m. EDT to 10:20 a.m. EDT.

ACC Network Extra will have coverage of holes No. 15-18 Friday from 2 until 4 p.m. EDT. Former UNC and LPGA player Donna Andrews will be the analyst on the coverage. The ACC Network Extra can be streamed on WatchESPN and on the ESPN app to ESPN subscribers.

For fans interested in attending tomorrow's round, there is no admission fee for the event.