Tar Heels Finish 19th at NCAA Championship

Sunday, May 26

Fayetteville, Ark. (The Blessings GC)

All Day

North Carolina

NCAA Championship Round Three

May 26, 2019 | Men's Golf

NCAA D1 Golf Championship Round 3 Results

Burnett Advances to Fourth Round

By: Steve Kirschner

Tar Heel freshman Ryan Burnett shot a 71 on Sunday and advanced to the fourth round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Golf Championship. The University of North Carolina finished the first 54 holes of the championship in 19th place; the top 15 teams after today's play advance to Monday's final round of stroke play.

Burnett is tied for 23rd and advanced to Monday's play by being one of the top nine individuals not on the 15 advancing teams. The Lafayette, Calif., native has shot 79-70-71 for a 4-over-par 220 total. He had four birdies and three bogeys on Sunday; his 70 on Saturday and 71 today were Carolina's only two rounds under par for the tournament.

Burnett was one of five players to shoot under par in both the second and third rounds.

Carolina shot 300 for the second consecutive day and finished 304-300-300 for 40-over-904. UNC finished four strokes behind Southern California, which earned the 15th and last spot in Monday's field. Second-ranked Arizona State was the first team off the cut line, one shot behind the Trojans. South Carolina was 17th at +38, ACC champion Georgia Tech was 18th at +39 and the Tar Heels were 20th at +40.

The 19th-place finish is Carolina's third straight top-20 at the NCAA Championships.

Defending champion Oklahoma State shot 286 on Sunday and leads at 12-under-852. The Cowboys are 25 strokes ahead of second-place Texas and Stanford, which are both 13 over (there is a 25-shot gap between first and second place and a 23-shot spread between second and 15th place).

"We'll look at all the positives this week, and certainly celebrate those, and more importantly look at those things we can do better as a group, so that when we are here next year and the year after that, that we are in contention to win the whole thing," says UNC head coach Andrew DiBitetto.

Carolina was tied for 12th after round one and 18th after 36 holes. The Tar Heels were counting a 3 over team score through the first eight holes on Sunday, which had UNC inside the cutline. But UNC shot 13 over par from holes 9 to 14 to drop outside the cut. Carolina rebounded over the final four holes, making 10 birdies as a team, but it wasn't enough to advance to Monday.

"Today, we were streaky," says DiBitetto. "Overall, it was not the day we wanted. I feel like we certainly could have been better in spots, but the one thing I absolutely love about our guys is the fight. They don't ever, ever, ever stop fighting. We didn't have our best day, but then you look at what they did coming down the stretch…I think we made 10 birdies in the final four holes."

Sophomore Ryan Gerard (Raleigh) tied for 43rd place at 7-over-223. He opened with 72-73 and shot 78 today, but closed with birdies on 16, 17 and 18.

Senior Joshua Martin (Pinehurst) finished at 230 (+14), junior Austin Hitt shot 233 (+17) and freshman Dougie Ergood shot 239 (+23).

Carolina was fourth among the six ACC teams that advanced from the NCAA regionals to the NCAA Championship, which was played at the Blessings Golf Club. Wake Forest (fifth) and Clemson (eighth) will play Monday; Georgia Tech was one stroke and place ahead of UNC, Duke finished 25th and Louisville 29th.