ECU Men’s Golf finishes 10th after rain cut tournament short

East Carolina University Men’s Golf Team traveled to Cary, North Carolina for the Stitch Intercollegiate Tournament at MacGregor Downs Country Club this weekend. After weather ended the tournament early the Pirates finished 10 out of 14.

"You always hate to lose rounds due to weather because you want to compete for 54 holes," head coach Andrew Sapp said in a press release.

Going into the Stitch Intercollegiate, ECU had two consecutive seventh place finishes. The first came at the General Hackler Championship when it finished in seventh out of 13 teams back on March 11, and the second at the Irish Creek Intercollegiate when it finished in the same spot out of 16 teams on April 6.

The Pirates shot 16 over par (592) before the tournament was cut short. Freshmen A.J. Beechler and sophomore Stephen Carroll were the high scorers for ECU, tying for 29th with 2-over-par (146). Junior Blake Taylor ended his day 7-over-par (149), fellow classmate Patrick Stephenson finished with 9-over-par (151) and sophomore Tim Bunten carded 12-over-par (156).

North Carolina State University senior Stephen Franken a playoff hole to capture medalist honors. Wake Forest University captured the team title with a total of 14-under-par (562).

"We only had three rounds of par or better out of 10 rounds, so hopefully this is a bit of a wake-up call as we head into the conference championship next weekend. We have six days to prepare and get everyone to play well at the same time down at Innisbrook," Sapp said in the release.

After finishing an up-and-down regular season that saw the team finish first at one event which was at the ECU Intercollegiate at Brook Valley in Greenville back on March 4, the team will look to bring home a conference championship on April 21 in Palm Harbor, Florida.