McBride Falls In ACC Tournament Playoff, Wake Finishes Third

Paul McBride, a junior from Dublin, Ireland, carded a final round 69 to finish at -5 and get into a four-way playoff for the individual ACC men’s golf title at Musgrove Mill Golf Club in Clinton, South Carolina. McBride took a one-shot lead to the final hole, but drove it into a hazard before pitching out and missing a fifteen footer that would have clinched the title in regulation. He advanced to a four-way playoff against Ben Griffin (North Carolina), Bryson Nimmer (Clemson), and Jimmy Stanger (Virginia)

In the playoff, McBride, Nimmer, and Stanger all hit it down the middle with Griffin going right of the fairway into some pine straw. While Griffin hit it into the bunker on his second, both Nimmer and Stanger stuck it within fifteen feet for a birdie chance. McBride, hitting last, came up short and right on his approach and joined Griffin in the bunker.

Both Griffin and McBride got close on their third shots, but Stanger drilled his birdie putt and clinched the individual title when Nimmer missed his effort.

McBride opened with back-to-back rounds of 71 before going out with three birdies on the front nine of the third and final round. He racked up three more birdies coming down the stretch to go along with three bogies for his final round 69. Despite trailing by five shots with 18 to play, McBride’s round was enough to get into a playoff after second-round leader Griffin fired a 74.

The Demon Deacons finished at +3 as a team, good enough for 3rd overall. The Duke Blue Devils claimed the overall team title by a whopping twelve shots, finishing at -14. Wake entered today’s 36-hole weather-induced marathon 15 shots off the lead. Led by Will Zalatoris’ bogey-free round of 68, Wake shot +1 as a team in the second round and entered the final round 19 shots behind Duke who was the wire-to-wire winner.

In the final round, Wake shot the best overall score and was the only team under par at -2. Zalatoris finished at -4 overall (73-68-71) good enough for a tie for 5th place. Freshman Eric Bae finished in a tie for 18th at +3 (72-72-75) and holed out from a bunker for eagle on 16 in his final round. Sophomores Cameron Young (81-80-71) and Lee Detmer (76-78-79) rounded out the Deacon team finishing 51st and 52nd respectively. Clemson came in second at -12.

Click here to check out all the individual and team scores.

The Deacs entered this week’s tournament ranked 9th in the GolfStat rankings and will now wait to see where they will play in the NCAA Regionals May 15-17. If they advance from the Regionals, the NCAA Championships are two weeks later. Stay tuned to BSD for more golf coverage as they have an eye for the NCAA title.