Demon Deacons Finish Runner-Up at ACC Championship

PINEHURST, N.C. - The Wake Forest men's golf team nearly defended its Atlantic Coast Conference Championship on Monday afternoon, falling to No. 12 Georgia Tech 3-2 at Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst, N.C.

The Demon Deacons are one of two teams to reach the final twice in the three years of the match play format at ACC Championships. On Monday afternoon, the Deacs were led by their underclassmen as they put the team in position to win a title.

Trailing two holes heading into the back nine, freshman Boyd Owens completely flipped his match on the back nine. Owens got one back immediately on No. 10 and continued to work his way back as he tied the match on the par-4 14th. One hole later he took his first lead of the match and never relinquished it from that point.

He put up the Deacs' first point on No. 17, winning the hole with a birdie and winning the match, 2&1.

Two spots behind him in the lineup was sophomore Scotty Kennon. Sunday, Kennon helped put the Deacs in the title match with the first point, winning his semifinal 5&4. Once again, he jumped out to an early lead, taking the first hole with a par. Kennon continued to remain 1UP until the eighth hole where he stretched his advantage to 2UP.

Kennon took a commanding lead on No. 10 going 3UP. He went on to win on the 16th hole, giving the Deacs a brief 2-1 lead in the match.

Wake Forest was one point away from becoming the first team to repeat in school history since 1979 and 1980, but was unable to find the final point to secure the title.

After junior Michael Brennan won the ACC Individual title on Sunday, the Deacs continued to add to their ACC-best title total as he became the 23 winner from Wake Forest:

ACC Championships by School

Wake Forest, 19
Georgia Tech, 17
Clemson, 10
North Carolina, 10
Duke, 8

ACC Individual Champions by School (includes ties)

Wake Forest, 23
North Carolina, 14
Georgia Tech, 11
Clemson, 8
Duke, 6
NC State, 6

Scores

Boyd Owens def. Connor Howe (2&1)
Michael Brennan lost Christo Lamprecht (6&5)
Mark Power lost Bartley Forrester (2&1)
Scotty Kennon def. Hiroshi Tai (3&2)
Andrew McLauchlan lost Ross Steelman (3&2)

From Coach Haas

Overall thoughts and message to the team

"What I will say to them is we have to keep learning in this game. You've got to look back and see where the match turned for each and every guy. Michael Brennan was even through three and then the other guy hits in the bunker on four and Michael's got an 18 footer for eagle and the other guy holes a bunker shot and Michael doesn't make it so he's one down. Both players birdie the next one. So, Michael is a couple under through No. 5 and he's one down. The guy makes a bomb on No. 7. I heard 60 footer. Now, he's two down. It gets depressing a little bit. And that happens. Christo is a world class player. I'm really proud of Boyd Owens. I mean 32 on that last nine to flip his match from two down to winning 2&1. Great experience for Andrew. He looked comfortable down the stretch. He's a freshman and all these people all this pressure, I thought he handled himself great. Scotty Kennon finished 11th in the stroke play and had a clutch birdie coming in the other day and in the qualifying. Then won his match yesterday and won again today. So many good things about Mark Power, my senior there from Ireland. He's already apologized to me but there's no need to apologize. He's like I just was pretty scrappy to get in and play great. So he'll work on it and we got NCAA Regionals coming up and it's a good time to be a Wake Forest golfer. We have a lot of good things going on. We have a young team. If you really break it down Marshall Miesel didn't play this week, but he's also very capable and he's a sophomore. Scotty, he's a sophomore, two freshmen, our junior Michael and senior Mark."

On getting to the Championship Match

"We went to Calusa Pines a couple of weeks ago to a really strong field and we finished second. We needed some wins and then we played at Bermuda Run with Davidson and Elon and shot 19-under for five scores and actually shot 21 for six scores. Every guy played great and then we came here and shot 13-under the first day the first morning. It got a little windy here. We didn't play as well, but we hung on and we got shot 10-under and qualified and got nine wins. We were one below .500. Now, we should finish the season eight above .500. That'll get us invited to NCAA Regionals and it'd be a shame if we didn't because I feel like we're one of the better teams and we're ranked 24th maybe after this next rankings will come out. Like I told them, they don't want to avoid good scheduling. We could go play and win every event if we scheduled it right or have a chance to. We play against good competition and that's what they want for their future as golfers."

ACC Championships by School

Wake Forest, 19
Georgia Tech, 17
Clemson, 10
North Carolina, 10
Duke, 8

Up Next

Wake Forest will await their NCAA future until May 3. The NCAA Division I men's golf selection show will air Wednesday, May 3 at 1:00 p.m. on GOLF Channel where the Deacs will find out which regional location they will be heading to May 15-17. Potential regional sites for the Demon Deacons:

Auburn, Alabama - Auburn University Club (Auburn, host)
Salem, South Carolina - The Cliffs at Keowee Falls (Clemson, host)
Bath, Michigan - Eagle Eye Golf Club, (Michigan State, host)
Las Vegas, Nevada - Bear's Best Las Vegas (UNLV, host)
Norman, Oklahoma - Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club (Oklahoma, host)
Morgan Hill, California - The Institute Golf Club (San Jose State, host)

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Michael Brennan

Scotty Kennon

Andrew McLauchlan

Boyd Owens

Mark Power

Wake Forest Athletics