<Thr Saihi (Tar Hrrl
UNC Eyes Season of Adjustment
By Ted Keith
Staff Writer
If tile North Carolina men’s golf team
looks a little rusty at the season-opening
Puerto Rico Classic on Feb. 27, it’s
because Mommy wouldn’t let them play
in the snow.
“Mother Nature wasn’t kind to us,”
second-year coach John Inman said.
January’s record-breaking snowfall
canceled a week of practice the Tar
Heels needed to get back in top form.
Inman also lost a chance to settle on his
five-man rotation for the spring season.
Seniors Max Harris and Paul Daniel
and junior Rob Simmons appear to be
the only certainties. Harris, an All-ACC
performer likely to hold down the top
spot in the lineup, is the leader.
Daniel and Simmons have separated
themselves with their fall and preseason
consistency and will be counted on to
maintain that performance throughout
the season.
“If one is playing poorly, the other is
there to pick him up,” Inman said. “It’s
not like other sports where you can call
a timeout and talk to them. They have to
Harris Maximizes Chance
To Swing in United States
By Bret Strelovv
Assistant Sports Editor
Former North Carolina golf coach
Devon Brouse had a lot of faith in
renowned golf instructor David
Leadbetter.
Brouse, without ever watching
Worthing, England, native Max Harris
strike a golf ball, went on the word of
Leadbetter and asked Harris to swing
his clubs for the Tar Heels.
“I knew David Leadbetter down in
Florida, and I asked him where to go,”
Harris said. “He knew Coach Brouse,
and he just said go to North Carolina.
“That was it, that w'as my decision. 1
never saw the campus, Coach Brouse
never saw' me. He never saw me swing.”
Those days of uncertainty are ancient
history.
Harris cracked UNC’s lineup for all
five of the Tar Heels’ tournaments in the
fall of 1996 and hasn’t looked back since.
Now a senior, he has developed into
one of the top college golfers in the
country. He finished sixth in last year’s
NCAA Championships and has earned
All-ACC honors each of the last two
years.
This fall, Harris won The Ridges
Intercollegiate on Sept. 12 - his second
individual championship. He also fin
ished tied for 20th place at the Savane
College All-America Golf Classic, which
features the nation’s best collegiate
golfers.
UNC coach John Inman said Harris’
experiences during the fall tournaments
have made him a better player.
“He keeps his composure better than
he used to, and he’s just a really solid
player,” Inman said. “He’s getting better
every tournament.”
That’s a scary thing considering Harris
has been one of UNC’s top-four finishers
■k i- r mm
pick each other up,
and those two
have."
Inman said four
to six players will
compete for the
final two spots in
UNC’s lineup.
Senior Brad
Hyler is one of the
front runners.
Hyler helped the
Tar Heels grab a
tie for second
place at last year’s
A C C
Championships by
UNC senior
Paul Daniel
finished in a tie
for seventh at the
ACC Championships
last season.
finishing tied for 18th individually.
Freshman Ramon Bescansa is also set
to emerge after posting UNC’s fourth
best score at the Golf World/Palmetto
Dunes Collegiate in Hilton Head, S.C.,
in early November.
“We’re looking for him to play well,
but we’re also looking for our other
freshmen to get in there and make their
impact,” Inman said.
As if searching for a lineup wasn’t
enough to keep Inman bogged down,
Jli
in 101 of the 117
rounds he’s played
for the Tar Heels.
He can now
begin to daydream
about taking his
skills to the profes
sional ranks.
Teammate Paul
Daniel, for one,
would like to see
Harris stay in the
United States.
“I have this talk
with him every
day,” Daniel said.
“As one of his
Tar Heel senior
Max Harris
won The Ridges
Intercollegiate this
fall with a three-round
total of 5-under par.
friends, I’d love to see him stay over
here so we could be able to stay in touch
more. There’s a lot more money over
here.”
If the PGA Tour interests Harris at
all, he need look no further than his
coach for help and advice.
Inman, whom Harris called a “calm
ing influence” on the golf course, played
on the Tour for 12 years and won two
professional tournaments.
“1 know a lot of the courses, 1 know
a lot of the manufacturers, just the little
pitfalls that are out there to try to stay
away from,” Inman said.
“Everybody has to make their own
way, but I can give him a lot of knowl
edge that I gained over the years out
there if that’s the way he wants to go.”
Harris said he might take his game
back to Europe. But after all, he did
leave England in the first place to attend
a school he knew nothing about.
“Never heard of it,” Harris said.
“After I had done some research, I heard
that Michael Jordan had been here, and
I was like, ’Yeah.’”
Now, the college golf world knows all
about North Carolina’s Max Harris.
Men's Golf
the Tar Heels are still trying to get used
to their upgraded home facilities.
The new Finley Golf Course,
designed by world-renowned golf archi
tect Tom Fazio, is more challenging than
its predecessor. The Tar Heels don’t
seem to mind very much.
“It’s amazing. It’s so convenient
being two minutes from campus,”
Harris said. “The course is tough and
very hard, and it’s going to challenge us
to play well.”
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■
Men's Golf
Feb. 27-29 Puerto Rico Classic
Rio Mar Country Club in San Juan, Puerto Rico
March 9-12 Golf Digest Collegiate Invitational
Desert Inn Country Club in Las Vegas, Nev.
March 25-26 The Schenkel E-Z-Go Invitational
Forest Heights Country Club in Statesboro, Ga,
April 14-15 Bell South Intercollegiate
MacGregor Downs Country Club in Cary
April 21-23 ACC Championship
Old North State Club at Badin Lake
UNC men's
golf coach
John Inman
Friday, February 18, 2000
7