The UNC men’s golf team is preparing to tee off in NCAA regional action in Connecticut next week, but the program is already bringing home some hardware. The ACC named Carolina head coach Andrew DiBitetto its Coach of the Year on Wednesday, and also named three players to its All-ACC teams. Ryan Gerard and Austin Greaser were each named first team All-ACC, while David Ford was named the conference’s Freshman of the Year.

DiBitetto is in his fifth season as head coach of the Tar Heels and 11th overall with the program. Carolina has made the top 20 of the NCAA Championships in each of the last three tournaments, one of only six programs in the country to do so. UNC’s fifth-place finish in 2021 was its best championship showing in 28 years. The Tar Heels have also won ten team titles under DiBitetto’s leadership, including three this season. He is the first Carolina coach to win Coach of the Year honors since 1995.

“I greatly appreciate the award, particularly because it’s voted on by the other outstanding coaches in our conference,” DiBitetto said. “However, this honor is about our program. It’s about [assistant] coach [Matt] Clark, the people in our athletic department who support our guys and most importantly, it’s about our student-athletes.”

Gerard is having the best season of his Carolina career as a fifth-year senior. His stroke average of 70.47 this season is the third-lowest all-time by a Tar Heel. His career stroke average of 71.73 is also third in program history. Gerard also leads Carolina in overall scoring to par (-34) and rounds under 70 (14). He won the individual title at the Rod Myers Invitational at Duke in September.

This is Greaser’s second straight season on an All-ACC team. A junior, Greaser is the first Tar Heel to earn two All-ACC nods before his senior season since 2009. He is Carolina’s all-time leader in stroke average at 71.49, and this season trails only his teammate Gerard in overall scoring and round under 70. It’s been quite the 12 months for Greaser, who placed second at the U.S. Amateur Championship in August, represented UNC at The Masters in April and will do so again at the U.S. Open in June.

Ford is the second consecutive Tar Heel to win ACC Freshman of the Year, after Peter Fountain did so in 2021. He is ranked as the second-best freshman in the country by Golfweek. Ford’s stroke average of 70.63 is the best-ever by a UNC freshman and the fourth-best at Carolina all-time. He leads the team with 20 rounds under par.

The Tar Heels will hit the course next Monday as the No. 1 seed in the NCAA’s Yale regional, looking to advance to the NCAA Championships for a fifth consecutive season.

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications

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