The NC State men’s golf team fell 5-4 to UNC-Chapel Hill at the I-40 Cup Match Play Event at Carolina Country Club in Raleigh April 2.
A total of nine matches gave players from each school an opportunity to compete in a different format then stroke play. Match play is what the ACC Championships will be after three rounds of stroke play, so it was important for these matches to happen to give the players some experience.
“[Match play] is a format we don’t see a lot,” said NC State head coach Press McPhaul. “It’s beneficial for both teams to play this match,”
In the nine matches, there were four Tar Heels wins, three Wolfpack wins, and two ties. The three winners for NC State were graduate Ben Shipp, sophomore Max Steinlechner and senior Easton Paxton.
“They’re good players,” McPhaul said. “They respond to adversity. They accept the challenge for what it is and they work to execute each shot.”
Shipp, who was coming off back-to-back individual title wins, defeated Peter Fountain by two holes with one remaining. Ship led virtually the whole way against Fountain and was putting the pressure on him. One of his best holes was a birdie on the par-3 11th hole.
“Today was pretty scrappy, it was a good match though,” Shipp said. “Thankfully, I was able to win a couples holes on 11 and 12 to put me three up,”
Steinlechner kept up his strong play with a two and one win over Austin Greaser. The Austrian made three birdies on the day before ending the match with a par on 17.
Paxton was in the final match of the day and it went all 18 holes where he won one up. He made five birdies on the day which totaled him to a score of 70 at the end of the round. One of the birdies was a tap-in set up by this pitch shot.
Earning ties by halving their matches for NC State were graduate Christian Salzer and freshman Ethan Choi. Salzer played really well and shot 67, but Dougie Ergood was equal to him for the Tar Heels. Choi had four birdies and an eagle, but it was not enough to take down Ryan Gerard of UNC-Chapel Hill.
Sophomore Spencer Oxendine, junior Thomas Deal, freshman Nick Mathews and sophomore Carter Graf were all defeated in their respective matches.
The Wolfpack will be back in action for the Stitch Intercollegiate in Cary at Macgregor Downs Golf Club April 9-10 for its last tournament of the regular season.
