Men's Golf
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- afdibite@unc.edu
The 2025-26 season is DiBitetto’s ninth as Carolina’s head coach and 15th with the Tar Heel men’s golf program.
DiBitetto (pronounced DEE-bih-TET-toe) has led the Tar Heels to 24 team tournament titles, four top-five NCAA Championship finishes and an ACC championship. His players have earned National Player-of-the-Year, ACC Player-of-the-Year and ACC Rookie-of-the-Year honors, represented the United States in the Walker Cup and Palmer Cup, earned 18 All-America, 24 PING All-East Region and 18 All-ACC awards, and are having success on the professional level, including the PGA TOUR.
In the last eight seasons, Tar Heel players have produced the 10-best career scoring averages and the 10-best single-season averages in UNC history.
Carolina advanced to match play in the 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 NCAA Championships, becoming the third team to qualify for match play in four consecutive seasons since the format began in 2009. It was the first time UNC finished in the top five in more than two consecutive seasons, and it marked the second time ever and the first time in more than 50 years that an ACC team had four top-five NCAA Championship finishes in a row.
DiBitetto was named ACC Coach of the Year in 2022, 2023 and 2024, the second time in ACC history and the first time since 1998 a coach won the award in three consecutive seasons.
Carolina finished tied for fifth, tied for fifth, tied for third and tied for fifth from 2021-24 in the NCAA Championship. In the 72-hole stroke play portion of the NCAA Championships, UNC tied Oklahoma and Vanderbilt for first place in 2022, led the entire 30-team field in 2023, tied for third in 2024 and placed eighth in 2021.
Over the past five seasons, the men’s golf team has contributed the most Directors’ Cup points among all of Carolina’s teams. Men’s golf has the second-longest streak of perfect 1000s in Academic Progress Rates in UNC Athletics at nine years in a row, the longest active streak among the men’s teams.
David Ford rewrote the Carolina record book from 2021-25 and was honored more than any previous player in UNC men’s golf history.
Ford was the consensus National Player of the Year in 2025, was a two-time ACC Player of the Year, broke the single-season ACC scoring record and the nation in scoring and was the No. 1-ranked player in the country as a senior, won PGA TOUR University to earn his PGA TOUR card and tied the all-time UNC record with five wins.
Ford set UNC single-season marks for scoring (68.78), score to par (-89), score to par per round (-2.47) and rounds in the 60s (25); and career records for scoring (70.13), score to par (-162), score to par per round (-1.13), rounds in the 60s (66) and match play victories (10).
His 68.78 average in 2024-25 topped the previous Tar Heel record by nearly a stroke and was the fourth-best in NCAA single-season history. He finished his career No. 2 in ACC history and No. 6 in NCAA history in scoring average.
At the professional level, Ben Griffin and Ryan Gerard are solidifying their presence on the PGA TOUR, and numerous recent Tar Heel alumni are competing on the Korn Ferry and other tours.
Griffin was selected to play for the United States in the 2025 Ryder Cup. He finished the PGA TOUR’s regular season sixth in points to qualify for the 2025 Fed Ex Cup Playoffs for the third year in a row.
Gerard was 31st in the regular season and played his way into the second round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Both won on the PGA TOUR for the first time (Griffin won twice), both tied for eighth in the PGA Championship and Griffin tied for 10th in the U.S. Open.
Carolina was one of three schools to have multiple alumni finish in the top 31 in the 2025 regular-season points race and one of five with two or more players who won on the PGA TOUR in 2025.
UNC Head Coach, 2017-present: In DiBitetto’s eight seasons as head coach, the Tar Heels have rewritten the Carolina record book:
• four top-five and six top-20 finishes in the NCAA Championships;
• first in stroke play twice in the NCAA Championship (shared in 2022, outright in 2023) and three times in the ACC Championship (2021, 2022 and 2024).
• won the ACC Championship in 2024, UNC’s first conference title since 2006.
• won 24 tournament team titles, including victories at Pasotiempo, Olympia Fields North, the Norman Course at PGA West, Eagle Point, Colonial Country Club, Seminole Golf Club, Floridian National Golf Club and the Atlanta Athletic Club. Before DiBitetto became the head coach, the Tar Heels had won 24 times from 1998-2017.
• Twenty (20) individual medalists, including three consecutive NCAA regionals, an ACC Championship and wins at Olympia Fields North, Colonial Country Club, Seminole and Eagle Point.
• David Ford became the first Tar Heel to win three consecutive starts and the first with five victories in one season (2024-25) and tied Dustin Bray’s school record with seven career wins.
• Austin Greaser won NCAA regionals in 2022 and 2024 and Ryan Burnett won in 2023.
• Greaser (2024) and Ford (2025) became the first men’s golfers to win the Patterson Medal, the most prestigious individual honor a Tar Heel student-athlete can receive, awarded for the most outstanding career accomplishments.
• produced a National Player of the Year, two ACC Players of the Year, three first-team All-Americas (including Peter Fountain, the first UNC freshman to earn first-team All-America honors), three second-team All-Americas, six third-team All-Americas and six honorable mention All-Americas.
• eight different Tar Heels earned 18 All-ACC awards, including three in 2021 and 2022, four in 2023 and a league-record five in 2024.
• Carolina has shot nine of the 10-best and 18 of the 21-lowest team rounds and all 10 of the best 54-hole scores in UNC history.
• individuals have produced nine of the 12-lowest rounds and 14 of the 15-best 54-hole totals in UNC history.
2024-25: Carolina won two team tournaments, the sixth consecutive season it won at least twice, and concluded the season ranked No. 12 in the country. The Tar Heels won the Williams Cup for the fourth season in a row, won for the first time at Finley Golf Club since Davis Love III renovated the course and had two players combine for six individual titles. David Ford set the single-season school record with five wins, and freshman Sihan Sandhu was the medalist at The Prestige Individual.
Ford won the Fred Haskins and Jack Nicklaus National Player-of-the-Year Awards, was named Golfweek’s NPOY, was the ACC Player and Scholar-Athlete of the Year, led the nation in scoring and won PGA TOUR University, which earned him a PGA TOUR card for the 2025 and 2026 PGA TOUR seasons.
The Tar Heels were second in stroke play in the ACC Championship and beat Wake Forest and Florida State in match play to advance to the final, where they lost, 3-2, to eventual NCAA runner-up Virginia. Carolina then placed sixth in the NCAA Urbana (Ill.) Regional.
Ford became the first Tar Heel to earn first-team All-America honors twice and the second to make the All-ACC team in each of his four seasons. Sandhu and Keaton Vo joined Ford as PING’s All-Region selections.
Sophomore Hampton Roberts tied the 18-hole UNC record with a 61 and broke 54-hole school records with a 21-under 195 finish at the Amer Ari Invitational. Later in the season, Ford tied the 54-hole record (195) as he won the Valspar Collegiate.
2023-24: It was an historic season as the Tar Heels tied a school record with seven team championships, won the ACC title for the first time in 18 seasons (and first time as outright ACC champions since 1996), became the third team in the match play era (since 2009) to advance to match play in the NCAA Championships four years in a row, set a record with five players on the All-ACC team and made numerous contributions in international play representing the United States.
Carolina was one of four teams invited by NBC and Golf Channel to participate in the inaugural St Andrews Links Collegiate. The Tar Heels competed against Georgetown, Notre Dame and Vanderbilt for two rounds of stroke play at the Jubilee Course and a day of match play on The Old Course.
Austin Greaser joined Dustin Bray as the only Tar Heels to earn four All-ACC awards. David Ford won the Wil-liams Cup and made the All-ACC team for the third time in as many seasons, Dylan Menante and Peter Fountain earned their second awards and Maxwell Ford his first. Greaser was a finalist for the Haskins Award and was a second-team All-America, and the Fords both earned third-team All-America honors.
DiBitetto joined Clemson’s Larry Penley (1996-98) as the only individuals to win three consecutive ACC Coach-of-the-Year honors. The Golf Coaches Association of America named DiBitetto District Coach of the Year and he was one of five finalists for National Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons.
Carolina won at Olympia Fields for the second straight season, the Williams Cup at Eagle Point for the third consecutive year, the prestigious East Lake Cup in Atlanta, the Amer Ari Invitational with a record-shattering score of 68-under 796 (the lowest to par in ACC history), the John Hayt, the Augusta Haskins Award Invitational and the ACC Championship.
In the ACC Championship, the Tar Heels held a six-shot advantage over the field after 54 holes of stroke play, then defeated Wake Forest, 3-2, in the semifinals behind wins by Maxwell Ford, Greaser and Menante. UNC defeated Florida State, 3-1-1, in the championship match. Greaser, who was third in stroke play, David Ford, who beat Luke Clanton, and Fountain won points in the title match. Fountain sank a 5-foot par on the 17th hole to secure the championship.
Carolina hosted the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional, where Greaser dropped a 30-footer for birdie on the final hole to win his second regional.
The Tar Heels placed third in the regional, the seventh consecutive time the Tar Heels advanced to the NCAA Championship. UNC joined Oklahoma, Texas and Vanderbilt as the only programs to play in the NCAA Champion-ship in each tournament held from 2018-24.
In the NCAA Championship, Fountain tied for 18th to lead UNC to a tie for third in stroke play before losing, 3-1, to FSU in the quarterfinals.
With a tie for fifth, Carolina became the second team in ACC history (Wake Forest 1967-71) to produce four consecutive top-5 finishes in the NCAA Championships.
The Tar Heels compiled a 148-21-1 record in stroke play, went 4-2 in match play, were No. 3 in the country in the final Scoreboard/Clippd rankings and posted the second-lowest stroke average (280.75) in UNC history.
Internationally, David Ford, Greaser and Menante were members of the United States team that won the 2023 Walker Cup at the Old Course at St Andrews. The Tar Heels won 2.5 points in the Sunday singles, with Ford clinching the Cup with his victory just moments before Greaser won his match. UNC was the first college team to have three players on a U.S. Walker Cup team since Alabama and California in 2013.
David Ford was one of three U.S. players to win the World Amateur Team Championship in Dubai, shooting 8-under 64, the best of the day, in the final round to secure the gold medal. It was the second straight year a Tar Heel played in the WATC (Greaser in 2022).
Menante won a bronze medal in Chile, defeating numerous PGA and LIV players, in the Pan American Games.
David Ford and Greaser helped the U.S. win the 2023 Palmer Cup. David and Maxwell Ford were both named to the 2024 Palmer Cup squad.
2022-23: The Tar Heels won five tournaments, including four of the highest-rated fields in all of college golf, beat the hometown Sun Devils in the NCAA quarterfinals in match play, were ranked second or third in the final polls, produced Carolina’s first-ever ACC Player of the Year (David Ford) and four All-Americas and All-ACC play-ers.
Carolina’s five wins tied the third most in school history and were the most since winning six times in 1984-85. Carolina’s wins included the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational, Jackson T. Stephens Cup, Williams Cup, Valspar Collegiate Invitational and Calusa Cup.
Tar Heels were individual medalists at three events – Ford in the Stephens Cup and fifth-year senior Ryan Bur-nett in The Calusa Cup and NCAA Salem Regional. Menante tied for fourth in stroke play in the NCAA Champion-ship, the second straight year a Tar Heel placed in the top five. Menante became the first Tar Heel ever to finish in the top 10 in the ACC Championship, NCAA regional and NCAA Championship.
Ford teamed with Greaser on the U.S. squad that won the Palmer Cup in June 2023. Ford averaged 69.89, second-best in UNC single-season history, and was a combined 46 under par in 12 tournaments. He was a first-team All-America and became the first sophomore to win ACC Player of the Year in 13 seasons.
Greaser earned his third straight All-ACC award and was joined on the GCAA and Golfweek All-America third teams by Burnett and Menante. It was the first time in UNC history and first time an ACC team had four All-Americas on the first-, second- or third-teams since Wake Forest in 1975.
For the fourth consecutive season, the Tar Heels set school records for stroke average (280.08) and score to par (-4.46). Ford (No. 2), Burnett (No. 6), Menante (No. 7) and Greaser (No. 8) established four of the eight-lowest scoring averages in a season in UNC history.
DiBitetto became the fourth individual and first Tar Heel to repeat as ACC Coach of the Year.
In addition to the Walker Cup and Palmer Cup, the Tar Heels were a force on the amateur golf scene, with at one point three players holding four of the top titles in the country. Ford won both the 2022 Southern Amateur and 2023 Jones Cup, Menante won his second straight Northeast Amateur and Greaser won the Western Amateur. Greaser finished third in the individual standings and led Team USA to a third-place finish in the 2022 World Amateur Team Championship in France.
All four of Carolina’s 2023 All-Americas were ranked in the top 50 in the end-of-season World Amateur Golf Rankings, including Ford, Greaser and Menante, who were in the top 15.
2021-22: The Tar Heels tied Oklahoma and Vanderbilt for first place in stroke play and tied for fifth after match play in the NCAA Championship. Carolina won three tournaments, finished first in stroke play for the second year in a row in the ACC Championship, was ranked No. 1 in the country for one week in the fall, finished second in an NCAA regional for the third straight year, had four All-Americas (one second team, one third team and two honor-able mentions) for the second time in program history, three All-ACC players for the second consecutive year, the ACC Coach and Freshman of the Year and four different players were medalists in five events.
Not only did Carolina post back-to-back top-five finishes in the NCAA Championship for the first time, two Tar Heels placed in the top five in the same NCAA Championship for the first time in program history. Burnett shared the individual lead after 72 holes and competed in a four-man playoff, where he tied for second, and Ford tied for fifth as a freshman.
The Tar Heels led the ACC in stroke average and shot 35 under par at the ACC Championships (nine strokes better than any other team). DiBitetto was named ACC Coach of the Year, UNC’s first recipient since 1995.
Ryan Gerard won at Duke, was second in the NCAA Yale Regional, led UNC in scoring average and earned second-team All-America honors. He was co-medalist in his first professional tournament at a U.S. Open qualifier and played in the 2022 U.S. Open at Brookline.
Greaser won at Olympia Fields and the NCAA Yale Regional, becoming the first Tar Heel to win an NCAA re-gional. He played in the 2022 Masters and made the cut in the U.S. Open, tournaments he earned invitations to by finishing second in the 2021 U.S. Amateur. That was the best finish in the U.S. Amateur by a Tar Heel in 29 seasons.
Peter Fountain tied for first in stroke play in the ACC Championship, setting a UNC record for that tournament at 13 under par.
2020-21: Carolina’s fifth-place finish in the NCAA Championship was the program’s best in 28 seasons and UNC won the stroke play portion of the ACC Championship for the first time in 15 years. Peter Fountain became the first Tar Heel since 2003 to earn first-team All-America honors and became the first Tar Heel to earn first-team All-America honors as a freshman. Fountain was medalist at the ACC Championship, the ACC Freshman of the Year, made the All-Nicklaus team and set UNC’s single-season stroke average record at 69.68.
Carolina won the stroke play portion of the 2021 ACC Championship in record-breaking fashion, setting the all-time tournament record with a 26-under-par 814.
2019-20: Tar Heels won two tournaments and were ranked as high as No. 13 in the national polls when the pandemic ended the season. Burnett (70.21) and Gerard (71.08) set two of the lowest single-season scoring averages in Carolina history and earned All-America and all-region honors.
2018-19: The Tar Heels finished second in the NCAA Stanford Regional and 19th at the NCAA Championship. Austin Hitt earned honorable mention All-America and All-ACC honors and was joined on the all-region team by Gerard, who set UNC’s 18-hole scoring record when he shot a 61 at Notre Dame. Burnett shot a 63 as a fresh-man in the NCAA Stanford Regional, the best round ever by a Tar Heel in NCAA play (which Greaser equaled in 2022 and Burnett matched in 2023), and advanced to the fourth round of stroke play at the NCAA Championship.
2017-18: In his first season as head coach, Carolina won the Tar Heel Intercollegiate and beat a national field at the Western Intercollegiate at Pasotiempo, UNC’s first-ever win on the west coast. The Tar Heels were fourth in the NCAA Kissimmee Regional and finished 15th at the NCAA Championship, the program’s highest national finish since 2003. Joshua Martin earned honorable mention All-America honors and seniors Ben Griffin, Jose Montaño and William Register made the PING East Region team.
Griffin finished his career with the lowest stroke average in UNC history, earned All-ACC honors for the second time, set 54-hole UNC records in winning the Tar Heel Intercollegiate with a 19-under-197 and became the first Tar Heel to shoot three rounds in the 60s in an ACC Tournament; Hitt posted the lowest score to par by a Tar Heel in an NCAA regional; UNC won the Tar Heel Intercollegiate shooting the lowest 54-hole score (815) and finishing the best to par (-49) in school history. It was the second-best score to par in ACC history.
UNC Assistant Coach, 2011-17: DiBitetto served as assistant coach at UNC from 2011-14 and the associate head coach from 2014-17. UNC won seven team titles and six players were medalists eight times in the six sea-sons. The Tar Heels played in four NCAA regionals and returned to the NCAA Championship in 2017 for the first time as a program in a decade.
A few of the notable players he recruited and/or developed as an assistant include Michael McGowan, Bailey Patrick, Andy Sajevic, Henry Do, Griffin, Register, Jenkins, Hitt, Martin and Montaño.
He won the prestigious Jan Strickland Award in 2016, which is presented to the assistant coach who has ex-celled in working with their student-athletes both on the course and in the classroom. DiBitetto served as an assistant coach on the United States’ team that defeated Team Europe in the 2017 Palmer Cup.
Charlotte: The Rochester, N.Y., native was an All-America at Charlotte, where he led the 49ers to unprecedented success at the NCAA Championships.
As a junior in 2007, he earned honorable mention GCAA/PING All-America honors after finishing ninth and leadiing Charlotte to a tie for third place at the NCAA Championships, the school’s highest finish in history. His ninth-place finish was the highest to date by a 49er.
As a senior, Charlotte was ranked consensus No. 1, won the A-10 Championship and tied for eighth at the NCAA Championships. It was the first time in school history men’s golf posted back-to-back top 10s at NCAAs. He set records for most tournaments and most consecutive tournaments played (50).
DiBitetto was second at the 2007 A-10 Championships and fifth in 2006. He led the 49ers to A-10 Championships in 2006.
In 2018, Charlotte honored DiBitetto at a home football weekend for his outstanding playing career.
DiBitetto excelled in the classroom, winning Atlantic 10 Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors in 2007. He was an All-America Scholar in 2007 and 2008 and Academic All-Atlantic 10 in 2006 and 2007.
DiBitetto graduated with honors with a degree in business management and played professionally for a short time. He returned to Charlotte as assistant coach in 2009 and was named the interim head coach for the 49ers in December 2010.
DiBitetto played or coached on six consecutive Atlantic 10 championship teams. Charlotte qualified for the NCAA regionals in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and the 49ers had six players selected to the All-Atlantic 10 team. Five players were named GCAA Scholar All-Americas, three players were selected to the GCAA/PING All-Region team and two players earned A-10 Student-Athlete of the Year honors. Corey Nagy was a two-time All-America, earning honorable mention in 2009 and second-team honors in 2010.
Family: DiBitetto was born on Jan. 17, 1986. He and his wife, Laree, have three sons, Levi, Luxen and Lucah.
