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University of North Carolina Athletics
GoHeels Exclusive: Seniors Develop Winning Culture
May 14, 2018 | Men's Golf, Featured Writers
NCAA Regional Underway in Florida
By Pat James, GoHeels.com
They gathered in August, during a team retreat in Charlotte, with hopes of developing a culture.
In an individual sport such as golf, that can prove difficult. But over the last three years, North Carolina seniors Ben Griffin and William Register had noticed how the most successful teams always spoke of having a good culture. And the Tar Heels' wasn't defined.
Because of that, Register said there was inconsistency – some team members held themselves to a higher standard, but that standard wasn't enforced across the entire team.
Andrew DiBitetto also noticed this. So after transitioning from assistant to head coach in July, he and assistant coach Matt Clark challenged the team at its August meeting. They emphasized then that the players needed to hold themselves and each other more accountable. And that began with Griffin, Register and fellow senior Jose Montaño.
"We told them that we were going to lean on them throughout the year," DiBitetto said. "We knew there would be some adversity, some pushback. But we needed them to be our rocks and to be another voice for the coaching staff when we're not around."
It's a role all three had long been working toward.
Instant leaders
Growing up in Chapel Hill and Burlington, respectively, Griffin, the son of two UNC graduates, and Register, the brother of Robert Register, watched the Tar Heels from afar.
They knew Carolina men's golf could regain elite status. So as high school sophomores, they committed to the Tar Heels within a week of each other.
Although they'd played tournaments together since they were 12, Griffin and Register weren't super close at the time. But their relationship changed after their commitments. They started texting back and forth, getting to know each other better. And they discussed their aspirations for a program that didn't receive NCAA Regional bids in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014.
"We were both UNC fans and we both had a lot of love for the University," Register said. "But the program didn't live up to the expectations of the other sports. We would talk about that and how we wanted to come in and change things."
So they enrolled at UNC in the fall of 2014. And they immediately got to work.
In just his second tournament, Griffin won the Tar Heel Intercollegiate. Carolina also claimed the team victory. Two weeks later, Register set the UNC record for all-time individual tournament scores and tied the school record for all-time individual tournament scores vs. par to win the Primland Collegiate Invitational; Griffin broke both records at the 2017 Tar Heel Intercollegiate.
After four tournaments, the Tar Heels ranked 19th in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings. It marked the first time they were ranked in the top 20 since February 2007. And it was largely thanks to Griffin and Register, who quickly raised the level of internal competition.
"When we came in, we wanted to be the leaders right off the bat, even though we were freshmen," Griffin said. "That was what we had our minds set on. When we were playing really well, it definitely felt that way."
Yet some obstacles eventually arose.
Griffin and Register finished their freshman seasons with the lowest and seventh-lowest stroke averages, respectively, by any Tar Heels since individual stats were first recorded in 1979. But their stroke averages inflated as sophomores.
Amid that, they both continued developing as leaders, learning when to speak up and how to approach each of their teammates.
"We never imagined ourselves not playing well," Register said. "That was a big learning curve, learning how to deal with adversity and bounce back. We always had our family in high school, but we had to build a community around it in college to help deal with the adversity."
Despite their sophomore struggles, Griffin and Register helped Carolina reach a second straight NCAA Regional in 2016. Before then, the Tar Heels hadn't secured consecutive NCAA Regional berths since making 20 straight appearances from 1989-2008.
Still, Griffin and Register felt unsatisfied.
They'd reached the midway point of their collegiate careers without advancing to the NCAA Championship. But a key addition would help change that.
'Part of something bigger'
Growing up in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Montaño often told his coach that his goal was to one day play for a top-20 collegiate golf program in the U.S.
He knew the Carolina men's golf team could fit that mold. But in high school, he said he felt as if UNC was "out of (his) league."
Instead, Montaño accepted a scholarship to Xavier after Sebastián MacLean, a former Musketeer men's golfer from Bolivia, sold him on the school. And Montaño thrived there. He was a first-team All-Big East Conference and PING All-Midwest Region selection as a freshman and sophomore. He also earned an individual NCAA Regional berth each year.
But for numerous reasons, Montaño decided to transfer after his sophomore season.
"The weather was something I didn't like up there in Cincinnati; cold weather is definitely not my style," he said. "I played good individually, but it wasn't a team that was going to make it very far collectively. I'll always seek self-improvement. I always want to better myself, so I tried to look for something better and improve in that sense."
Montaño contacted the Carolina coaching staff after Xavier granted him his release. And shortly after that and a visit to Chapel Hill, he decided to transfer to UNC.
Griffin and Register didn't know Montaño well. But they'd played in a few tournaments with him, and expected he'd come in and immediately start for the Tar Heels.
That, however, wouldn't be the case.
Montaño played the entire fall season as an individual. And during that time, he said he experienced a lot of self-doubt. Adding to the difficulties he faced in his new environment, he lived in an apartment about 15-20 minutes away from the Chapman Golf Center.
But before the start of the 2017 spring semester, Montaño moved into a house with Griffin and Register. They bonded over table tennis, electronic dance music and Montaño's cooking. Subsequently, Montaño's golf game improved.
"I started getting into a rhythm, getting used to the competition, all of those guys pushing me to get better," he said. "I knew if I was going to play, I had to get better. It keeps driving you forward. You know you cannot relax, that you've got another guy who wants your spot and he's going to take it if you don't play well."
In many ways, that's the sort of environment that Griffin and Register cultivated when they arrived as freshmen. Register said Montaño fit right in.
"At Xavier, he didn't have the chance to achieve any team success," Register said. "Their team is good, but they weren't elite enough to make regionals. He wanted to be part of something bigger, so he had the same mindset that we did."
Montaño ultimately finished the 2016-17 season with a 72.81 stroke average, the second best on the team. And at the NCAA Stanford Regional, he shot two 68s across the final two rounds, helping UNC advance to the NCAA Championship by a single stroke.
The NCAA Championship appearance was the Tar Heels' first since 2007. They finished 18th.
"We did not play well in the NCAA Tournament, unfortunately, but we definitely learned a lot from it," Montaño said. "We learned that we can be there, that stage is for us and we can rise to the challenge."
Leaving a legacy
They gathered once again last Tuesday, this time at DiBitetto's house, to celebrate the seniors and the last nine months.
In that span, UNC won two tournaments, marking the first time it's accomplished that feat since Griffin and Register were freshmen during the 2014-15 season. Carolina also finished in the top five in five of nine other events.
But most importantly, the Tar Heels established a culture – one centered on players who possess confidence and self-motivation – with their seniors leading the way. The team has grown closer because of it. And that makes the seniors' looming departures even more difficult.
"It's going to be tough to leave a lot of my teammates, now that I'll be moving into sort of the real world," Griffin said. "The relationships I've built are what I'm going to remember the most. I'm going to continue to keep those relationships moving forward. There's really something special here."
Griffin and Register will both be leaving for PGA Tour Canada after this season. Montaño will graduate from the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School in December; once his golf career is over, he hopes to take over his father's business in Bolivia and continue his family's legacy there.
But all three plan to stay involved with the program. And Montaño has already expressed interest in helping this fall.
"The fact that he wants to do that, I think it's a credit to not only the individuals, but it does speak to our program and what we're building," DiBitetto said. "After a pretty short period of time, it's important to them that they want to be around it as much as possible."
But one more tournament stands between them and becoming alumni of the program.
Carolina is the No. 13 seed in the NCAA Championship which begins play on Friday. The Tar Heels qualified for the final round of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in as many seasons by finishing fourth last week at the NCAA's Kissimmee (Fla.) Regional. All five UNC players went under par in the decisive third round, an unprecedented feat over 18 holes for UNC in a regional. The national champion will be crowned in Stillwater, Okla., at the Karsten Creek Golf Club and this time, the Tar Heels hope to reach match play, where they feel like their competitiveness will suit them well.
Having Griffin, Montaño and Register – who rank first, second and third, respectively, in career scoring average at Carolina – also helps.
"That's something that Austin Hitt brought up in a team meeting a couple of months ago," DiBitetto said. "He said, 'If you look at these guys, literally, the time is now. We need to take advantage of that, and we need to make sure that we're doing our part to send these guys out on an extremely high note.'"
But no matter what happens, the seniors have left their mark on the program.
"I want to be remembered as the group that created the culture that left an impact on the program," Register said, "that changed the course of the program, that was the foundation for success of the future program. I want to be remembered as the people who were responsible for building the base of Carolina golf and what it's going to be in the future.
"I hope we did that. I hope we created a culture that will stay in place for a long time."
