Burnett Preps for New Challenges

There are three words to describe Tar Heel men's golfer Ryan Burnett: concise, competitive and confident. Ranked in the top five in the nation by Golfweek at the end of the fall season, the three "C's" have rocketed the sophomore to among the best collegiate golfers in the country. Accomplished and recognized, Burnett is patiently developing his game one day at a time.

Concise
A round of golf can take hours to complete, thus, practices can be lengthy in nature as well. Between the driving range, putting green and the course itself, a golfer works on a multitude of shots and scenarios. Tailored around his needs and class schedule, Burnett's approach to practicing is focused on conciseness and consistency.

A typical day for Burnett includes making his way to UNC Finley Golf Course after his last class around mid-day. He grabs lunch and is ready to practice by 1 p.m. His first stop is the putting green to address his short game. About 45 minutes later he transitions to the driving range, where on a normal day, Burnett spends roughly 30 minutes hitting shots. And lastly, he works on chipping to close out his day. All by design, he gets in-and-out knowing that he has addressed the elements of his game to get better.

"I try to keep a consistent plan throughout the entire semester, and not deviate it based on one week," said Burnett. "I just keep doing the same thing. If I have a great ball-striking week, I still work on ball-striking the same amount. If I have a great putting week, I still work on putting. It can be very easy, just because you didn't putt very well, to work on that -- then you lose the ball striking, or vice versa. I just think having a plan throughout the course of the semester and being disciplined and not reactionary, is very important for me."

Competitive
In early September, the Lafayette, Calif., native earned his first collegiate tournament victory at the Turning Stone Tiger Intercollegiate in upstate New York. Even though he equaled the course record with a 64 in his final round, Burnett's first win didn't come easily. Right on his heels was a talented freshman with whom he was very familiar – his teammate, Austin Greaser.

Greaser's own record-tying 64 a day before brought him within one stroke of Burnett entering the final round. Having tied for second place at the 2019 NCAA Stanford Regional, Ryan had a better understanding of what it would take to bring home the win.

"I felt I needed to keep on the gas pedal, even though I was in the lead," said Burnett. "We had Greaser, a freshman playing in his first tournament, and he's come in and been incredible. Even though I was leading, I felt like I wasn't because every time I looked up, Austin was making a birdie. I was watching him make putt after putt in front of me, so I had to keep playing well to keep distance from him. I knew I needed to make birdies."

And that he did. Burnett birdied 22 holes over the three rounds and won the tournament shooting 69-65-64, an 18-under-par total of 198, the second-best score and result to par in UNC history.

"It's very rare in our sport to win a tournament," says Burnett. "It's the result of a lot of hard work coming together in one week, which is a really cool feeling."

Confident
In the heat of competition, many golfers can become unapproachable or quiet. Focused on the next shot, the outside world is non-existent in the duration of a round. But, as one might have guessed it, the affable Burnett is not like many golfers during a round. He's relaxed, comfortable and chatting about the latest football scores. More importantly, he is confident.

Last season he finished in the top 10 four times as a freshman and entered the summer on a high note. The this past fall he had three top-five finishes, including his victory at Turning Stone, and was named the Atlantic Coast Conference's Golfer of the Month for September. Burnett credits his coaches for his ability to compete in the upper echelons of collegiate golf.

"I expect more of myself this year because of what I was able to do at the end of my freshman season," says Burnett. "It's managing expectations and confidence to a certain level, and knowing I can do it and starting to work with the coaches to create a formula to do it."

Building for the Spring
Burnett averaged 69.8 strokes in five tournaments in the fall, a mark on pace to be the lowest in UNC single-season history. He opened with five consecutive rounds in the 60s and was 24 under par over his 15 rounds. That and his win at Turning Stone, a runner-up finish at Notre Dame and third place at Duke earned him a spot on the Fred Haskins Award Watch List in October (awarded to the national men's collegiate golfer of the year). But his play is far from a finished product.

"My goal over the break was to get to the gym and do a lot of work there," said Burnett. "I think there were some times when my body didn't allow me to perform as well as I could have in the fall. I wanted to get stronger, more flexible and more mobile."

•••

Burnett and the Tar Heels will get their first opportunity to showcase the work put in over the November-January break from play when they return to competition Feb. 3-4 at the Sea Best Invitational in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

"We can't wait to get going again," says UNC head coach Andrew DiBitetto. "We have a very competitive group so everyone is excited to get down to Florida, put the logo on and jump back into action."

UNC finished sixth at Sea Best last season. Austin Hitt tied for 11^th (1-over-211) and Burnett tied for 15^th (3-over-213) to lead the Tar Heels. Florida State won the team title at even par, 18 strokes ahead of Carolina.

Burnett, junior Ryan Gerard, Greaser, Hitt (the lone senior in the lineup) and sophomore Dougie Ergood will start for Carolina. Sophomore Luis Castro will also compete as an individual entry.

Gerard and Hitt enter the spring No. 1 and 5, respectively, in career stroke average in Carolina men's golf history. Gerard has averaged 71.87 in 29 tournaments; Hitt has averaged 72.30 in 43 events.

Burnett is also on track for the lowest career average as a Tar Heel; he's at 71.53 in 19 tournaments, one event shy of qualifying for that standard.

"Ryan had an incredible fall for sure," says DiBitetto. "It's been interesting because there have been some college golf articles published this week about players to watch and Ryan's name wasn't anywhere to be found. Likely because Ryan is relatively new to that echelon and people aren't sure if he will stay there, which is fair. Ryan will face new distractions and challenges this semester, but at the end of the day, it's still about putting a little ball into a hole. That part will never change. As a coaching staff, this is why we coach. We coach to see how young men handle new situations, help them overcome adversity, and grow as people and players. We are excited to watch Ryan and all our other guys take flight and Coach (Matt) Clark, Scott Grant and I are here to help all of them every step of the way."

The Sea Best Invitational will be played at TPC Sawgrass – Dye's Valley Course. Joining the Tar Heels in the field are host Jacksonville, Arkansas, Campbell, East Carolina, Florida, Liberty, Lipscomb, McNeese State, NC State, North Florida, Texas A&M, UNLV and USC Upstate.

Thirteen of the 14 teams in the 2019 field are back in 2020; the lone exception is the defending champion Seminoles.

Carolina is ranked No. 16 in the nation by Golfstat; the only higher-ranked team in the field is No. 13 Texas A&M.

"Since everyone returned in January, it's been business as usual for us," says DiBitetto. "We've talked about preparation, we've put the guys in competitive environments at home, worked on some short game situations, and have had discussions about having elite minds."

Play begins with 36 holes on Monday, Feb. 3, and concludes on Tuesday.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Ryan Burnett

Luis Castro

Dougie Ergood

Ryan Gerard

Austin Greaser

Austin Hitt

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