Men's Golf Opens At Sahalee Players Championship

North Carolina begins the 2025-26 men's golf season this weekend at the Sahalee Players Championship in Sammamish, Wash.

The Tar Heels are ranked 15^th in the country in the Bushnell Coaches' poll and 18^th by Golfweek and Golf Channel.

Carolina returns six players from last year's team, which was ranked 12^th in the final NCAA Scoreboard poll and finished second in the ACC Championship and sixth in the NCAA Urbana (Ill.) Regional.

The Tar Heels welcome four newcomers – graduate transfer Andrew Riley (St. Johns, Fla.), junior Niall Sheils Donegan (Mill Valley, Calif.) and freshmen Carson Bertagnole (Pinehurst, N.C.) and Mack Edwards (Charlotte, N.C.).

Riley played two seasons at Palm Beach Atlantic, where he won the 2023 NCAA Division II individual national championship, and the 2024 season at North Florida. Sheils Donegan played the previous two seasons at Northwestern, where he earned second-team All-Big Ten honors as a sophomore.

Bertagnole and Riley are two of UNC's five starters at Sahalee. Sheils Donegan, a native of Scotland and the highest-ranked player on the roster, is competing this weekend for Team Great Britain & Ireland in the Walker Cup at Cypress Point in Pebble Beach, Calif.

Three returnees from 2025 are also in the UNC lineup, including senior Keaton Vo (Austin, Texas) and sophomores Misha Golod (Kyiv, Ukraine) and Sihan Sandhu (Ashburn, Va.). Sophomore Grant Roscich (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) is competing as an individual entry.

Vo and Sandhu earned PING All-East Region honors and both won two matches in the ACC Championship.

Sandhu won a non-team event at The Prestige and tied for third in stroke play in the ACC Championship.

Vo was second on the team in scoring average (71.86) behind National Player of the Year David Ford.

Golod, Bertagnole and Riley are all making their first starts for the Tar Heels.

Carolina is one of six ranked teams in the Sahalee Players Championship, which will be played at Sahalee Country Club. The teams will play 18 holes Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Joining UNC in the field are the host Washington, No. 3 Texas, No. 5 Florida, No. 8 Arizona State, No. 22 Pepperdine, No. 24 Arizona, Northwestern, Oregon, San Diego State, UCLA and the U.S. National Development Team (Golfweek rankings).

Arizona State won the Sahalee Players Championship last fall at 7-under 857. The Sun Devils were the only team to shoot below par. They won by 11 strokes over Florida. Oregon's Aiden Krafft was medalist at 4 under.

Carolina was led by David Ford, who tied for eighth at even par. The Tar Heels tied for ninth at 21 over.

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Players Mentioned

Carson Bertagnole

Mack Edwards

David Ford

Misha Golod

Andrew Riley

Grant Roscich

Sihan Sandhu

Niall Sheils Donegan

Keaton Vo