North Carolina
NCAA Championship Match Play Quarterfinal vs. Arizona State
Sun Devils Edge Men's Golf in NCAA Quarterfinal
June 1, 2021 | Men's Golf
UNC Finishes 5th, Best Since 1993
UNC freshman Peter Fountain, named a first-team All-America by the Golf Coaches Association of America earlier today, won his match, defeating David Puig 2&1. Tar Heel sophomore Austin Greaser rallied from three holes down to force a tie with Cameron Sisk for a half point.
Fifth-year senior Austin Hitt concluded his career with a 2&1 loss to Chun An Yu, senior Ryan Gerard lost 4&3 to Mason Andersen and junior Ryan Burnett was defeated 4&3 by Ryggs Johnston.
Carolina finishes the NCAA Championship tied for fifth, its highest placing since 1993. It's UNC's first top-10 result since 2003 and 22nd top-10 all-time.
The Tar Heels have posted consecutive top-20 finishes in each of the last four NCAA Championships – tied for 18th in 2017, 15th in 2018, 19th in 2019 and tied for fifth this season (no championship was contested in 2020 due to the pandemic).
Fountain, who won the ACC championship and led the league with the lowest stroke average in Carolina history at 69.68, was head coach Andrew DiBitetto's choice to go out first today in match play.
Fountain won the 5th, 6th and 9th holes to go 3 up. Puig won the 10th, but Fountain took the 15th hole to restore the 3 up lead and closed out the match with a par on the 17th hole.
Hitt, a two-time All-ACC honoree who was playing in his 54th tournament as a Tar Heel, led by two holes through eight. Yu won the 10th, 13th and 14th holes to take the lead. Hitt made a spectacular up-and-down from beyond the 16th green to keep the margin at one, but Yu drove the par-4 17th to win the hole for the 2&1 margin.
Burnett was tied through seven holes with Johnston, whose 63 in the second round was the lowest round of stroke play. The Sun Devil then holed out from a greenside bunker to claim the eighth hole and added wins at 9, 12 and 14.
Gerard won the 6th, 9th and 14th holes, but it wasn't enough against Andersen, who won the first four holes and ended the match by halving the 15th.
Greaser lost three of the first five holes, but rallied to win the 6th, 7th and 8th to pull even. Sisk went 1 up on 12, but Greaser answered back with a win on the 13th hole. The match was declared over with the players on the 14th hole once the Sun Devils clinched the team point.
Head Coach Andrew DiBitetto:
"We didn't get the result we wanted in the quarterfinals this morning, but it wasn't from a lack of effort or heart. Arizona State is an excellent team and a program that we have tremendous respect for. (Assistant Coach Matt Clark) Clarkie and I are always proud of our guys for the way they compete. Overall, this was a great season for us. The preseason rankings had us as the 28th best team in the country. It's safe to say we proved to be much better than that. We have a lot to be proud of and we are all confident that the future of our program is very bright. Our program is filled with people who work hard, do things the right way, and want to climb to the very top of the mountain.
"We cannot thank Austin Hitt enough for his contributions to Carolina Golf. We've previously talked about leaving things better than we found them. It's very simple here...Austin Hitt has made us better on and off the course and we are going to miss him.
"I also want to thank everyone who was a part of our season. This was a bizarre year due to Covid, but we made it a successful one. This is due to our program being surrounded by so many incredible people in Carolina Athletics. Our program is much bigger than just coaches and student-athletes. We are grateful to our entire staff, who are all amazing people and fully committed to who and what we want to be as a program."
NCAA Quarterfinals
Arizona State 3.5, UNC 1.5
Peter Fountain (UNC) def. David Puig (ASU) 2&1
Chun An Yu (ASU) def. Austin Hitt (UNC) 2&1
Ryggs Johnston (ASU) def. Ryan Burnett (UNC) 4&3
Mason Andersen (ASU) def. Ryan Gerard (UNC) 4&3
Austin Greaser (UNC) ties Cameron Sisk (ASU)
