North Carolina earned an early berth in the NCAA Men’s Golf National Championship on Tuesday at Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas.
The Tar Heels finished fourth at 19-under for 54 holes to qualify for Carlsbad, California. The regional concluded with 36 holes Tuesday due to inclement weather forecast for Wednesday.
Carson Bertagnole led the Tar Heels at 10-under and Andrew Riley finished 7-under to give UNC a 1-2 punch. Texas, host Texas A&M, Chattanooga and Chattanooga also qualified.
At 14-under, Duke has the fifth spot at Marana, Arizona. Alabama trails the Blue Devils by two shots. Arizona, Oklahoma State, Arkansas State and LSU make up the top four entering Wednesday’s final round. William Love is tied for ninth at 6-under for Duke.
On a day when several teams, including N.C. State, went low and rose up the leaderboard at Bermuda Run East, host Wake Forest tumbled into trouble entering Wednesday’s final round of the Winston-Salem Regional .
Wake shot 2-over-par 286 as a team Tuesday, dropping at least 11 strokes to five teams, and five and six to two more, falling to seventh place at 564, seven shots behind Southern Cal, which occupies the fifth and final berth into the National Championship in Carlsbad, California. N.C. State is sixth, five behind USC.
Nicholas Prieto of Wake continued his solid play with 1-under 70, matched by teammate Maddux Cook. But Lorenzo Rodriguez and Jakob Melin shot 73 and Tom Haberer shot 74.
Meanwhile, team leader Virginia added 14-under to its 13-under opening round to take a six-shot lead at 27-under over Pepperdine and Ole Miss, which posted Tuesday’s best of 15-under. Mississippi State shot 12-under, good enough for fourth at 18-under.
N.C. State also passed Wake, shooting 9-under Tuesday for a 6-under 36-hole total. Each of the Wolfpack’s four players with scores that counted broke par, led by Pearce Lewin, who shot 67.
Ben Jones of Virginia shot 63 to take a three-shot lead in the medalist race over two players. Tyler Jones of Western Carolina struggled to 74 and 1-under, leaving Jacob Long of Kentucky on top in the race for the regional’s individual shot at 8-under after he posted 64. Kelvin Hernandez of UNC Greensboro is 1-over.
Charlotte shot 7-over at Corvallis, Oregon, to drop to nine shots from fifth-place Arkansas.
