After nearly six months of playing on bent grass courses across the southeast, the No. 23-ranked men’s golf team returns to the state of North Carolina, where it will play on a more familiar surface at the River Landing Intercollegiate this weekend – Bermuda grass.
The event in Wallace, N.C. marks the beginning of a series of three in-state tournaments, including next weekend’s Wolfpack Spring Open held at Lonnie Poole Golf Course.
Sophomore Mitchell Sutton will be playing in his first tournament since winning the Hootie Intercollegiate at Bulls Bay on March 29. The London, Ontario native said capturing an individual title will hopefully show the team it can be a force and give players confidence moving forward.
“It gave me a whole deal of confidence and hopefully the other guys play well, too,” Sutton said. “Everyone is obviously trying to get a win individually and that will really help the team as well. I just want to keep doing what I’ve been doing and that should help me out.”
Aside from the boost in confidence from picking up an individual victory, Sutton noted that returning to North Carolina should pay dividends for the team. In last year’s River Landing Intercollegiate, the top three finishers were teams from North Carolina while the bottom ten finishers hailed from out-of-state.
“The grass down here is a little different, so we kind of get used to that,” Sutton said. “Being so close to home is kind of nice and it gives us a little bit of an advantage. We’ve been down there playing the course a few times, so we definitely have a little bit of an advantage.”
Akron, Pa., native Brandon Detweiler agreed with Sutton’s thoughts on gaining an advantage from playing in North Carolina. The senior has played in every event in the spring semester.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with the golf courses,” Detweiler said. “I think it has to do more with the grasses. Once you hit Virginia, that’s where Bermuda and bent grass kind of split with bent going up north and Bermuda coming down south. It’s definitely an advantage to southern schools because we practice on Bermuda all the time.”
Although the experience with Bermuda grass may end up being pivotal, Detweiler said that veteran expertise coupled with a rested group of guys should provide an additional edge.
“All but two of us have played at least one tournament here before because River Landing is where we used to have our home event,” Detweiler said. “It was also nice to have a little bit of a break after the Hootie since we had three tournaments in a three week stretch. That was nice to be able to get a break and practice a little bit.”
With two Pack golfers picking up three individual titles thus far in the 2010-11 season, competition to join that group has increased. Detweiler said that riding the success of individual wins can be converted into overall success for the team.
“Obviously we want to ride any success that the team has,” Detweiler said. “It puts more drive in us to play better when we have guys winning tournaments. For me, I definitely want to start winning and everyone else feels the same way. They’re our teammates, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to beat them.”
The River Landing Intercollegiate will take place this Friday and Saturday while the Wolfpack Spring Open will take place next Saturday and Sunday. After hosting its annual spring tournament, the ACC tournament will begin on April 22 at Old North State Club in London, N.C.
