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University of North Carolina Athletics
Men's Golf Places 3 on All-ACC Team
May 10, 2021 | Men's Golf
Fountain UNC's 1st Freshman of the Year Since 2008
Peter Fountain, the 2021 Atlantic Coast Conference individual men's golf champion, is the ACC Freshman of Year and fifth-year senior Austin Hitt and sophomore Austin Greaser join Fountain on the 15-player All-ACC team, the conference announced on Monday.
Fountain is the second Tar Heel to win ACC Freshman-of-the-Year honors, joining Kevin O'Connell, who won in 2008 (the award was first given in 1992).
Hitt earns his second All-ACC award as the Longwood, Fla., native also received all-conference recognition in 2019.
Fountain, Greaser and Hitt mark the fourth time in UNC men's golf history three Tar Heels made the All-ACC team. The Tar Heels also had three honorees in 1977 (Bill Buttner, Kevin King, John McGough), 1986 (Kurt Beck, John Hughes, Bryan Sullivan) and 2003 (Ramon Bescansa, Dustin Bray, Richard Treis).
Florida State's John Pak is the 2021 ACC Player of the Year and Clemson's Larry Penley was voted Coach of the Year.
Fountain, a Raleigh native, equaled ACC Tournament records for fewest strokes in a round (63 in the second) and 54 holes (200) in winning the title by a stroke. He is second in the ACC in stroke average at 69.33, which is on pace to shatter the UNC single-season record. He is fourth in the nation in adjusted stroke average and is ranked No. 6 in the country by Golfweek. Fountain also won the Tar Heel Intercollegiate and finished second at both the Camp Creek Invitational (which featured a 10-team, all-ACC field) in his college debut in January and the Wake Forest Invitational at Pinehurst No. 2 in early March.
Fountain shared ACC Player of the Month honors for March and won the accolade outright in April, the first player to win the award in consecutive months in eight seasons.
"It is amazing to win Freshman of the Year in the ACC, which has five teams ranked in the Top 10 in the country and the teams are loaded with talented young players," says UNC head coach Andrew DiBitetto. "Peter has been fabulous. He's been consistently great, already won two tournaments, including a huge win at the ACC Championship, and he's been clutch. This is a significant honor for Peter and one he has rightly earned."
Hitt is averaging 70.61 strokes this season, second lowest in UNC history. He was third at the ACC Championship and also has a pair of fourth-place finishes this season at The Prestige and Tar Heel Intercollegiate.
Greaser is averaging 70.71, which ranks No. 3 in UNC single-season history behind only Fountain and Hitt. The Vandalia, Ohio, native tied for fifth at the ACC Championship, shooting in the 60s in all three rounds. He's shot in the 60s in 10 of his last 14 rounds.
"Coach (Matt) Clark and I are proud of Peter, Austin Hitt and Austin Greaser," says DiBitetto. "Each has had their own path, but all of them work hard, do things the right way and are highly competitive people. All of them are self-motivators. This is a tremendous accomplish for each of them, as well as our program to have three players named to the All-ACC team."
Carolina is the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Noblesville (Ind.) Regional, which is scheduled for May 17-19. The top five teams from that regional and five other regionals advance to the NCAA Championship round May 28-June 2 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The Tar Heels have won two tournaments this season and won the stroke play portion of the ACC Championship, setting 18-hole (265 in the second round) and 54-hole (814) records for the ACC Tournament.
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Golf
/ Men's Golf
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