Men's Golf Opens At Notre Dame

The University of North Carolina men's golf team, coming off unprecedented back-to-back fifth-place finishes at the 2021 and 2022 NCAA Championships, opens the season Sept. 4-5 at the Fighting Irish Classic in Notre Dame, Ind.

Ryan Burnett, David Ford, Peter Fountain and Austin Greaser – each of whom have earned All-America honors in previous seasons – return to the lineup this season and the Tar Heels add two-time West Coast Conference Player of the Year and All-America Dylan Menante, the No. 8 player in the current World Amateur Golf Rankings. Menante transferred to UNC after three seasons at Pepperdine, where he was a starter on the 2021 NCAA champions.

The Tar Heels compete in a pair of tournaments they won team titles at a year ago: Sept. 16-18 at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational at the Olympia Fields Country Club and Oct. 21-23 the Williams Cup presented by Stitch Golf at Eagle Point in Wilmington, N.C.

Greaser, now No. 5 in the World Amateur Rankings, was the individual champion last fall at Olympia Fields, holing out from the fairway on the last hole for his first collegiate victory.

In between Olympia Fields and the Williams Cup the Tar Heels will play in two October tournaments new this season to the UNC schedule, the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Stephens Cup (which will be televised by the Golf Channel) at the Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla.

Carolina returns to Hawai'i for the Amer Ari Invitational in February and finishes that month at the Southern Highlands Collegiate in Las Vegas. In March, the Tar Heels return to the Valspar Collegiate in Palm City, Fla. (where Menante won the 2022 individual title).

April is the busiest month on the spring schedule with three events: The Calusa Cup in Naples, Fla., the ASU Thunderbird Collegiate in Phoenix and the ACC Championship at the Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst.

The Southern Highlands and Calusa Cup join the Hogan Invitational and Stephens Cup as new entries on the UNC schedule.

"Our tournament schedule this year is incredible," says Andrew DiBitetto, the 2022 ACC Coach of the Year and a finalist for National Coach-of-the-Year honors. "Our guys will test their games on some of the best courses in the country, including ones that have hosted PGA Tour tournaments, major championships and a Walker Cup. We will compete against the best teams in the country on a regular basis. Our strength of schedule should be near the very top at the end of the year. We can't wait to get started."

NCAA regionals are May 15-17 with the NCAA Championship May 26-31 once again at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Carolina has the sixth-longest streak of advancing out of regionals to the NCAA Championship and is one of five schools to finish in the top 20 in the last five NCAA Championships.

Players Mentioned

Ryan Burnett

David Ford

Peter Fountain

Austin Greaser

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