Men’s Golf Beats Arizona State To Advance to NCAA Semifinals

ACC Player of the Year David Ford rallied from two holes down with four to play but won three straight holes to deliver the winning point to send No. 1 seed North Carolina to the semifinals of the 2023 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship Tuesday with a 3-1 win over Arizona State at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
 
Ford went 1 down on the eighth hole, a deficit that remained through the next five holes and was extended to two when Michael Mjaaseth won the 14^th. Ford then won the 15^th, 16^th and 17^th holes to go ahead by one and clinched the match with a par on 18.
 
Dylan Menante never trailed and won 5&3 and Ryan Burnett won the first four holes then held off a late charge for a 1 up win to provide the two other points for the Tar Heels.
 
Peter Fountain’s match officially goes down as “unfinished” but the 2021 first-team All-America gave Carolina an emotional lift as he came back from two holes down on the back side against Preston Summerhays, the Sun Devils’ top player and the fifth-ranked player in the country. Summerhays led by two after the 13^th hole, but Fountain won the 14^th, 16^th and 17^th holes to go 1 up. Their match was declared over with Fountain and Summerhays in the 18^th fairway when Ford parred 18 for the decisive point.
 
Menante, who won an NCAA title with Pepperdine in 2021, went out first for Carolina and never trailed in his match against Luke Potter. Menante finished tied for fourth in stroke play on Monday and won the fifth, seventh, 10^th, 13^th and 15^th holes today for his third career match play win at the NCAA Championships.
 

Burnett won the first four holes, three of them with birdies, but Ryggs Johnston cut the lead to one with wins on 12 and 13. Burnett made an 8-footer for birdie on 16 to go 2 up, but Johnston made birdie on 17 to pull within one again. Both players made par on 18 as Burnett secured his first match play win in an NCAA Championship. Two seasons ago, Johnston defeated Burnett, 4&3, in the quarterfinal as ASU beat Carolina, 3.5-1.5.
 
The Sun Devils won their point today when Jose Luis Ballester defeated Austin Greaser 2 up.
 
Carolina plays No. 5 Georgia Tech this afternoon at 4:35 p.m. Eastern. The Yellow Jackets, who won the ACC Championship last month, defeated fourth-seed Pepperdine, 3-2, to advance.

UNC head coach Andrew DiBitetto after defeating Arizona State, 3-1, in…