Denied a California event because of the coronavirus, UNC instead rules CCU’s Hackler
The University of North Carolina men’s golf team expected to be playing this week in the Lamkin Grips San Diego Classic co-hosted by San Diego and San Diego State.
The squad had a flight scheduled Friday morning.
An email from the school’s chancellor’s office Thursday morning that introduced an athletic travel policy due to coronavirus concerns upheaved those plans.
“The email we woke up to Thursday was basically travel restrictions,” Tar Heels head coach Andrew DiBitetto said. “It was kind of two part. One it said you couldn’t travel outside the country and you couldn’t travel to any states that had declared a state of emergency. At that time there were only two states and California was one of them.
“Part two to the policy was if you do go, when you return you could potentially be in a 14-day quarantine. So that’s basically what we were working on all day Thursday trying to determine . . . if we do go are we actually going to be in quarantine. And if we can control that, obviously it’s not something you want to do to your student-athletes.”
So DiBitetto and assistant coach Matt Clark worked the phones Thursday to cancel their travel plans and try to find an alternative tournament. DiBitetto called Coastal Carolina coach Jim Garren early Thursday evening to see if there was room for the Tar Heels in the 19th General Hackler Championship at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club.
Garren added UNC as the event’s 15th team. “We’ve got a group of guys that we love to compete, so when you hear you may potentially lose a tournament it’s a little bit deflating,” DiBitetto said. “Then when you hear that some people are extremely kind and generous and accommodating and flexible and have given us an opportunity, we very quickly kind of got back on a high.”
The grateful Tar Heels rode that high to a convincing win Tuesday afternoon. UNC shot a 9-under 279 in the final round for a 21-under 843 total that was 13 strokes better than runner-up Liberty.
“We have a bunch of guys who are players, man. When we get rolling we can be tough to beat,” said UNC sophomore Ryan Burnett of Lafayette, California, who tied for second individually at 6-under 210. “I think we took our minds off everything past golf. We were just lucky to be out here playing and I think it put us in a really good mindset to just be able to come out and execute shots and put up good scores.”
Host Coastal Carolina finished 11th, though senior Zack Taylor was the individual champion at 8-under 208.
The Hackler’s strong field included Golfweek top-10 teams Wake Forest and Louisville, who finished third and fifth, respectively. N.C. State finished seventh and South Carolina ninth.
The Tar Heels, who are ranked 17th by Golfweek, took a five-shot lead over No. 6 Wake Forest into the final round at 12-under par and quickly extended the lead to run away from the pack.
“We just got off to such a great start,” DiBitetto said. “It seemed like almost everybody on our team was either 2- or 3-under within the first three or four holes, so from there you get some momentum on your side and just kind of stick to your game plan and go from there.”
The win is the Tar Heels’ second this season, along with the season-opening Turning Stone Intercollegiate in September in Verona, New York, and they next host the Tar Heel Intercollegiate on March 21-22.
“Anytime you win you need a complete team effort and we definitely got that this week,” DiBitetto said.
Four UNC golfers finished in the top 20 as Ryan Gerard was seventh at 4-under 212, Austin Hitt tied for 14th at 215 and Austin Greaser tied for 18th at even-par 216. Dougie Ergood tied for 31st and contributed a 2-under 70 in the second round, when Greaser carded an 80 that was sandwiched by rounds in the 60s.
Burnett was in the final group and tied for the lead at 8 under entering the final hole following a birdie on the par-3 17th. But he double-bogeyed the par-4 18th when he caught a 9-iron thin into the wind and it came up short and in the water fronting the 18th green, which featured a low front pin.
“I was going for the win so you can’t fault yourself on that one,” Burnett said.
All part of a week to remember.
“It will be a story to tell I’m sure for a very long time, and it all worked out,” DiBitetto said.
The Tar Heels hope their schedule returns to normal soon.
“Not being even able to fly across the country because of a virus is something I’ve never experienced before and it’s probably something I won’t experience again in my college career,” Burnett said. “Hopefully they can get everything kind of handled and continue on our season so we can play.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 6:56 PM.
