Men's Golf Tied for Fifth in NCAA Regional

Monday, May 14

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North Carolina

NCAA Regional Day 1

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

May 14, 2018 | Men's Golf

NCAA Kissimmee Regional Day 1

Hitt and Montaño Shoots in the 60s

By: Steve Kirschner

Austin Hitt shot a 4-under-par 68 and Jose Montaño shot a 69 to lead the University of North Carolina to a tie for fifth place after Monday's first round at the NCAA Kissimmee Men's Golf Regional.

The top five teams advance to the NCAA Championship May 25-30 in Stillwater, Okla. Second round action is Tuesday with the final round set for Wednesday at the 7,154-yard Watson Course and Reunion Resort.

The Tar Heels shot 5-under-283 and are tied with Vanderbilt, the nation's fifth-ranked team. UNC and the Commodores are seven shots behind Florida and Central Florida (-12), three shots behind Kent State (-8) and one behind South Florida (-6). Arizona is seventh at -4 and Jacksonville State is eighth at -2.

Carolina was 5 under par after three holes, then played the par-4 fourth and fifth holes in 7 over par. After seven holes UNC was 6 over par and had fallen to the bottom of the standings. Over the final 11 holes, however, the Tar Heels shot 11 under par to finish at -5.

Hitt was 1 over through seven holes, birdied the eighth and played the back nine in 4 under par to finish at 68. The sophomore from Lakewood, Fla., has played his last two NCAA Regional rounds in 7 under par.

Montaño continued his stellar play in the NCAA Tournament, finishing at or under par for the seventh time in 10 career rounds in a regional. The senior from Bolivia was 1 over through 11 holes, but birdied 12, 14, 15 and 17 to finish at 3 under.

Seniors Ben Griffin and William Register's Carolina's top two all-time leaders in stroke average, both struggled early, but rebounded over the final dozen holes. Griffin opened with a birdie on the first before heavy rain suspended play for 70 minutes. Soon after play resumed Griffin double bogeyed the fourth and fifth holes to drop to 3 over. It was only the second time all season the Chapel Hill native had multiple doubles in a round. From that point, Griffin had 10 pars and three birdies to finish at even-par 72.

Register bogeyed three of the first six holes and doubled the 16^th, but made birdies on 11, 14 and 17 to post a 2-over-74.

"We had a good start then struggled coming out of the rain delay," says UNC head coach Andrew DiBitetto. "We've talked all year about being resilient and gritty and overcoming adversity. Our guys did an exceptional job of that to finish today's round. Austin played his final 11 holes 5 under, Jose shot 32 on the back nine, Ben played his last 13 holes in 3 under and Will shot below par on the back side."

Hitt is tied for fifth on the individual leader board at -4, just a stroke behind four players tied at -5 (Arizona's George Cunningham, Kent State's Chase Johnson and UCF's Juuso Kahlos and Bobby Bai). Montaño is tied for ninth.