Males’s Golf Hosts Williams Cup At Eagle Point

Eagle Point Golf Club, a spectacular 7,300-yard check for quite a few the most effective collegiate gamers within the nation, is residence to the fifth annual Williams Cup offered by STITCH Golf starting on Sunday, October 19.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are once more the host of the three-day, 54-hole event that options seven of the top-25 groups within the nation within the NCAA’s Scoreboard/Clippd rankings.

The Tar Heels enter the Williams Cup ranked No. 12 within the nation after claiming a share of the staff title on the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational and a runner-up exhibiting at Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish Classic.

Utah debuted this week because the nation’s top-ranked staff after a pair of top-three performances within the Utes’ first two begins.

Joining Carolina and Utah within the area are No. 4 Auburn, No. 11 Texas, No. 13 Oklahoma, No. 23 Notre Dame, No. 24 Arizona, No. 26 Florida, No. 28 Louisville, Augusta, Kentucky, NC State, UNCW and Oregon State.

The Williams Cup honors Roy Williams and his spouse, Wanda, for his or her many contributions to varsity athletics. The Hall of Famer was UNC males’s basketball coach for 18 seasons, main the Tar Heels to a few NCAA titles and almost 500 wins from 2003-21.

This yr’s Williams Cup consists of three of the earlier 4 NCAA staff champions in Texas (2022), Florida (2023) and Auburn (2024). The Longhorns got here into this season ranked No. 1 within the nation by Golf Channel, whereas the Tigers are presently the highest staff within the Bushnell Coaches’ ballot.

Carolina will enter two five-man lineups this week. The starters embody Niall Sheils Donegan, Carson Bertagnole, Andrew Riley, Keaton Vo and Grant Roscich. The second group consists of Sihan Sandhu, Misha Golod, Ethan Paschal, Hampton Roberts and Mack Edwards.

Bertagnole, a freshman from Pinehurst, shot 6-under-par 204 at Notre Dame to win his first collegiate title in simply his third begin. He opened with a 67 and received with a 35-foot birdie on the second playoff gap. He grew to become the primary Tar Heel freshman to win a full-field occasion since Peter Fountain in 2021.

Numerous particular person standouts will tackle the difficult course at Eagle Point, together with six gamers who competed within the 2025 Walker Cup at Cypress Point, 11 All-Americas from final season, 13 of the highest 50 gamers within the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) and 12 of the highest 50 within the Scoreboard/Clippd particular person rankings.

Auburn’s Jackson Koivun received National Player-of-the-Year honors in 2024, when he led the Tigers as a freshman to the nationwide championship. He repeated as a first-team All-America final season, helped lead Team USA to victory within the Walker Cup and is ranked No. 1 in WAGR.

Texas’ Daniel Bennett and Tommy Morrisson, Auburn’s Josiah Gilbert, Notre Dame’s Jacob Modleski and Oklahoma’s Jase Summy all earned second-team All-America honors final yr. Texas’ Christiaan Mass and Florida’s Luke Poulter have been third staff.

Maas is coming off a person win on the World Amateur Team Championship two weeks in the past in Singapore, the place he and Bennett, his Longhorn teammate, additionally helped South Africa to the staff title.

Poulter teamed with Carolina’s Sheils Donegan on Team Great Britain and Ireland within the Walker Cup, whereas Modleski, Morrison and Summy teamed with Koivun on the victorious U.S. Team.

Utah’s Gabriel Palacios is No. 1 within the nation on this week’s Scoreboard/Clippd rankings, the primary of the season. Four different gamers within the area are ranked within the high 15, together with the Utes’ Davis Johnson (5^th), Summy (eleventh), Gilbert (14th) and Notre Dame’s Calen Sanderson (15^th). Bertagnole is Carolina’s highest-ranked particular person at No. 49.

The chase for the person title within the Williams Cup needs to be enjoyable to look at as eight of WAGR’s high 25 are competing: No. 1 Koivun, No. 4 Mass, No. 5 Summy, No. 7 Filip Jacubik of Arizona, No. 8 Morrison, No. 14 Jack Turner of Florida, No. 16 Modleski (the 2025 ACC medalist) and No. 24 Bennett.

Carolina has received the staff title in every of the primary 4 Williams Cups. The Tar Heels shot 17-under 847 for a nine-stroke win over Georgia in 2021, 3-over 867 and a 12-shot win over UNCW in 2022, 11-under 853 and an 18-stroke win over Auburn in 2023, and 16-under 848 final season.

Last October, the Tar Heels trailed Arizona State by two after 36 holes, however Hampton Roberts (68), Ethan Paschal (69), David Ford (70) and Maxwell Ford (70) mixed to shoot 10 beneath par within the ultimate spherical to edge the Sun Devils by a stroke.

David Ford was medalist for the second straight Williams Cup. He shot 68-68-70 for 10-under 206 and a one-stroke margin over ASU’s Connor Williams. In 4 begins within the Williams Cup, Ford received twice, completed second twice and shot a mixed 25 beneath par.

Georgia’s Trent Phillips (15-under 201) was the medalist within the inaugural occasion; Indiana’s Drew Salyers (4-under 212) was the champion in 2022; in 2023, Ford (4-under 212) made an 8-footer for birdie to defeat North Florida’s Nick Gabrelcik on the primary further gap.