Cavaliers Begin Play At ACC Championships

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia’s men’s golf team will be trying to improve its rankings when the Cavaliers begin competition today in the ACC Golf Championships at Old North State Golf Club outside Charlotte.

UVA is eyeing its 13th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and a strong finish in the ACC event will only enhance those probabilities.

“I think we’re in pretty good shape right now,” said Virginia coach Bowen Sargent, finishing up his 15th year at the helm of the program. “A week ago I couldn’t have said that.”

The Cavaliers jumped seven spots in the national rankings after performing well in the Clemson Invitational last week. They moved above .500 for the season, one of the two criteria to move on to NCAA play. The other is ranking, which has UVA in a good place.

First, however, is this week’s ACC Tournament where Virginia senior Thomas Walsh is reigning champion. Walsh not only won the event last season, but set an all-time ACC Tournament record of 16-under par 200 in the prestigious championships.

“Thomas had a really good fall but hasn’t played quite as well this spring,” Sargent said. “The last outing (Clemson), he had a really good tournament and I think the tide is turning for him.

“He’s kind of fought his swing early on in the spring, so last week was the first time he was pretty comfortable with things,” Sargent continued. “I know he’s excited about going back and defending in his home state of North Carolina. He feels very comfortable at that golf course. He has a lot of positive things going for him heading into this week.”

Not only did Walsh win the tournament last year and set the ACC championship record, he also broke the North State course record.

Several of the Cavaliers performed well on the course last season or are familiar with the layout. Jimmie Massie, a sophomore from Lynchburg, played really well in the event last season. Senior Ashton Poole, who grew up in Charlotte, has played the course since junior golf.

It could be that Virginia is finding its stride heading into postseason play. Facing somewhat of a rebuilding scenario after losing quality golfers such as Derek Bard and Jimmy Stanger over the past two years, the Cavaliers were a rather young team coming into the season.

“I knew this year was going to be a little bit of a challenge because we lost those players,” Sargent said. “It hasn’t been the year, to this point, that anyone has hoped for. But we’ve had a pretty good spring and we’re playing better at the right time.”

One of the great improvements this season has been the play of junior Andrew Orischak from Hilton Head, S.C.

“He has really matured and turned into a good player,” Sargent said. “He’s helped Thomas a lot (in providing consistent quality play). Andrew has had the best spring of all our guys. Along with Massie and David Morgan (freshman, Naples, Fla.), and Poole, we’ve got our five and hopefully we’ll have a good week.”

The coach believes his team has gotten better in every tournament this spring with the exception of a short hiccup at the Hootie at Bull’s Bay, when one of UVA’s five players suffered an injury in the practice round and couldn’t participate in the tournament. The Cavaliers had to play with four golfers (in college golf, the four lowest scores out of five players count) and still managed to finish only a stroke behind Duke, which was No. 2 in the country at the time.

“Given where we were that week, it was a nice event for us,” Sargent said. “We responded, came back at Clemson and played really well. I think we’re trending in the right direction.”

Virginia figures it will have to post 12 rounds under par to have a shot at the elusive ACC title. While the Cavaliers have boasted individual champions, including Stanger in ‘17 and Walsh in ‘18, they have never won the ACC tournament crown.

“You’ve got to putt well [at North State],” Sargent said. “It’s a birdie fest. I would normally say a team will have to finish at 30-under to win, but because it looks like weather could be really bad on Saturday (final round), it could be 25-under that wins. Regardless, we’re going to have to make a lot of birdies.”

This will be the final year of stroke play in the ACC event. Future tournaments will be decided by match play, just like the NCAA event. Sargent voted against the change in format because he believes stroke play better identifies the best team.

Also beginning next year, Old North State will be part of a rotation for the ACC championship along with another club in Charlotte and a club in Florida.