UNC Climbs to Fourth at John Burns

Saturday, February 23

Lihue, Hawai'i (Wailua GC)

All Day

North Carolina

John Burns Intercollegiate Day Three

February 23, 2019 | Men's Golf

Burns Final Results

Four Tar Heels Under Par in Final Round

By: Steve Kirschner

Ryan Gerard and Ryan Burnett combined to shoot 7 under par and lead four Tar Heel golfers to sub-par final rounds as the University of North Carolina shot the day's best score and finished in fourth place Saturday at the John Burns Intercollegiate at the Wailua Golf Course.

The Tar Heels climbed from sixth place to fourth after shooting an 11-under-par 277, two strokes better than tournament runner-up Texas A&M for the best team score of the final 18 holes.

Burnett finished fourth in the individual standings after shooting 3-under-69 today and posting a 7 under total. It was his second top-five finish as a freshman (tied for third at Duke in September). The Lafayette, Calif., native eagled the par-5 first hole for the second day in a row.

"Ryan is a great player and he played well this week," says UNC head coach Andrew DiBitetto. "He has areas of his game where he can improve, but he's very talented and an excellent ball striker. He doesn't get much attention nationally, but hopefully he will continue to play well and changes that."

Gerard (Raleigh, N.C.) had Carolina's best score of the day, a 4-under-68, making five birdies and only one bogey. Gerard tied for 16^th place with a 54-hole total of 4 under par.

Joshua Martin (Pinehurst, N.C.) and Dougie Ergood (Mount Laurel, N.J.) both shot 2 under today; Martin finished in a tie for 22^nd at 3 under; Ergood concluded the three-day tournament 1 over.

Austin Hitt shot even par for the round and finished the tourney also at even.

Arizona State won the team title by three strokes. The Sun Devils were 24 under, Texas A&M was second at -21, Duke was third at -19 and the Tar Heels came in fourth at -18. UNC was five strokes clear of UNLV, which was fifth at -13.

Peter Kuest of BYU shot a 68 on Saturday to win medalist honors at 10-under-206. He was one shot better than Texas A&M's Walker Lee, who also shot a 68 today.

"We weren't very happy after Thursday's first round because we wasted a lot of shots and played undisciplined," says DiBitetto. "We talked that night about course management and managing their game better. I give our guys a lot of credit because they listened, adjusted and then executed much better in the second and third rounds. We played really well all day today, especially late in the rounds."

Carolina returns to action March 11 in San Diego.