Great race in works for ACC team, individual honors

By STEVE WILLIAMS

The Atlantic Coast Conference tournament is a couple of months away, but an early indication of how the teams might shake down came Feb. 17-18 in the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate at Ponte Vedra, Fla.

The tough Sawgrass Country Club was the meeting place for the ACC’s four highest rated teams along with six players who rank among the top 12 in the country.

Augusta State, quietly becoming a NCAA golf power in recent years, stole the thunder from the ACC’s elite with a 10-shot margin over Clemson. Wake Forest was fourth, N.C. State seventh, Duke ninth and North Carolina 11th.

The 15-team event featured eight of the top 15 teams listed in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index.

Individually, Clemson’s D.J. Trahan came out on top of a three-way playoff that included Duke’s Ryan Blaum and Carolina’s Dustin Bray.

Wake Forest’s Brent Wanner tied for fourth, N.C. State’s Fernando Mechereffe tied for seventh and Wake’s Bill Haas and Clemson’s Gregg Jones shared 12th.

Bray carried the lead going into the final day of the 54-hole tournament after shooting 69-67, but he came home with a 75 in the final round, suffering a pair of early double bogeys. That enabled Trahan, with a 67, and Blaum, with a 68, to catch him.

Trahan then went birdie-eagle to win the two-hole playoff.

The Sawgrass gathering was one of two on the spring schedule that can be used to gauge the ACC order of merit before the real test comes at Old North State Club April 18-20.

Clemson, State, Wake, Duke and Carolina will also butt heads March 22-23 in the Chris Schenkel Invitational in Statesboro, Ga.

Georgia Tech isn’t to be forgotten either. The rebuilding Yellow Jackets are ranked 19th.

Wake Forest’s early 2003 action included a championship in the Tulane Invitational Feb. 10-11. The Deacons, with a veteran cast, will be trying to make amends for last spring’s disappointing showing in the regional that kept them from getting a NCAA berth.

Seniors Wanner, Chad Wilfong, Cortland Lowe and Chris Yoder are mainstays in the line-up along with junior Bill Haas. Freshmen Kyle Reifers and Alex Yates are also pushing for playing time.

Bray, the defending ACC champion and a semifinalist in last summer’s U.S. Amateur, has led Carolina’s march into the national spotlight. The Tar Heels posted a stunning third in the regionals last year to earn a berth in the NCAAs.

Ramon Bescansa, Brad Moldin, Jeremy Elliott and Bob Cherry are returning senior starters but only Bescansa and Moldin were in the line-up in the spring opener. Junior Richard Treis and freshman Fernando Figueroa played at Sawgrass.

N.C. State finished sixth in last year’s NCAA Tourney but the Wolfpack, despite losing only one starter, have been inconsistent. They had a couple of fifth-place marks last fall but also had two events where they finished near the bottom of the pack.

N.C. State followed the seventh at Mercedez-Benz with a sixth at the Puerto Rico Classic Feb. 23-25. That was an especially disappointing finish for the Wolfpack because they led after shooting 288-286 for the first two rounds. A final round 301 enabled Oklahoma State, Clemson, Minnesota, Texas and Florida to slip past them.

Justin Walters, a senior, claimed his third career individual crown since joining the N.C. State program as a junior. He had rounds of 70-70-71 on the par-72 course and shared the Puerto Rico medal with Jason Hartwick of Texas. Walters looked to be out of contention by going out in 40 the final day, but he signed off with five birdies on a back-nine charge card.

Mechereffe and Jason Moon are also returning Wolfpack senior starters while Rodney Thomas is back after starting as a freshman. Soph Sutton Barbrey and freshman Stephen Lewton are also expected to get a lot of tee times.

Duke was sensational in the fall, winning once and finishing no lower than fourth in any of five tournaments. But the Devils struggled in their first two 2003 events. After the ninth at the Mercedez Benz, they limped home 12th of 18 at the Puerto Rico Classic.

Blaum was one of three freshmen in the Duke lineup at Sawgrass as he was joined by Alex Wilson and Nathan Smith. Senior Leif Olson and junior Mike Castleforte completed the fivesome. Wilson posted Duke’s best finish in Puerto Rico, a tie for 35th.

Junior Rob Beasley and soph Tom Lefebvre were the fall regulars and will be challenging for playing time this spring.

While at least six ACC teams are considered contenders for national honors, UNC-Wilmington has quietly made its move up to No. 26 in the rankings.

The Seahawks had a superb fall campaign (two first-place finishes) and opened the 2003 half with a second-place showing Feb. 17-18 at the Matlock Collegiate Classic, falling only a stroke back of Tulsa.

Freshman Tony DiBetetto led UNC-W at the Matlock with a third-place tie, but the team’s leader has been junior Derek Brown, a three-year starter.

Brown, who has two career wins, recently shot a 10-under-par 62 in a team qualifying round at Cape Fear Country Club. He holed out an eagle two on the final hole to tie the course record.

The Seahawks have six veterans (Adam Gee, Brian Joyce, Marc-Andre Roy, Bill Lewis, John Calarco and Brown) to go with DiBetetto.

East Carolina is another Division I team with realistic hopes of reaching the NCAAs. The Pirates, who open spring play March 10-11, are coming off a solid fall in which they had a first and three seconds in five outings.

Senior Jonathan Hill and junior Jason Harris have emerged as the team’s leaders. Will Pope, Adam Howell and Calle Andren make it a solid fivesome.

In Division II, Pfeiffer rules. The Falcons, ranked second nationally, won four of five tournaments in the fall while posting under-par team scores in eight of 11 rounds. They have now won 13 tournaments in the last year and a half.

Pfeiffer seniors Andrew McArthur and Russ Jones are ranked 1-2 nationally by GolfStat among Division II players.

There are familiar names at the top of the NCAA Division III Precept Coaches Poll, released Feb. 13.

Methodist College is first, followed by Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Oglethorpe.

Defending national champ Guilford is fourth and Greensboro checks in at No. 5.

Guilford and Greensboro will get an early look at each other March 3-4 at Southern Pines in the Pine Needles Invitational hosted by Division II power Pfeiffer. They will meet again March 28-30 at the Camp Lejeune Intercollegiate. Methodist will be part of mix at Camp Lejeune.