By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Eastern Alamance alum Nick Mathews was bidding to follow an individual championship from the last regular-season tournament for the North Carolina State men’s golf team with another stellar performance.
But it was largely tough going for area golfers in Atlantic Coast Conference championships during the past week.
Mathews had the second-best score among N.C. golfers in the men’s tournament at Charlotte Country Club in Charlotte. Mathews tied for 23rd place at 2-over-par 215 with rounds of 71, 72 and 72 for the eighth-place Wolfpack.
Yet Mathews, a redshirt junior, has put together a solid year.
He won the Stitch Intercollegiate at N.C. State’s Lonnie Poole Golf Course earlier this month for his first collegiate title, leading the Wolfpack to the team crown in the 12-team event. His three-round total of 2-over-par 215 was one stroke better than Duke’s Luke Sample in a field of 81 golfers.
For the year, Mathews is second on the team in stroke average (72.34) and owns three top-10 finishes. He led the Wolfpack in each of the first three fall tournaments, including tying for second in the Folds of Honor Collegiate at American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven, Michigan.
- In the ACC women’s tournament at Porters Neck Country Club in Wilmington, Williams graduate Kayla Smith, a North Carolina fifth-year senior, tied for 35th place at 5-over 221 with scores of 72, 78 and 71.
• Virginia Tech’s Emily Mathews, a freshman out of Eastern Alamance, placed 53rd at 14-over with rounds of 78, 76, 76.
Photo credits: thanks to the respective universities – N.C. State, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Virginia Tech – for photos of their respective golfers.
