The ACC has decided to incorporate match play into its men’s and women’s league championships beginning this spring.
A decade after match play debuted in the 2009 NCAA Championship, the format continues to spread into conference championships. The ACC has decided to incorporate match play into its league championship beginning this spring.
The format change was approved last year and goes into effect for both the men’s and women’s ACC Championships in 2020. The championship will now feature 54 holes of stroke play before a cut to the top four teams, who move on to match play.
The men’s championship will be played April 17-20 at Old North State Club in New London, North Carolina. The women’s championship will take place April 22-26 at the Reserve Golf Club in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina.
Interestingly, last year’s NCAA Women’s Championship (the fifth decided by match play) featured an all-ACC final between Duke and Wake Forest. Duke ultimately won, claiming its seventh program championship but its first in the match-play era.
Wake Forest had won the conference title a month earlier.
“I’m excited about the format of ACC being match play,” Wake Forest women’s head coach Kim Lewellen said. “Not only do I think it is great practice for our NCAA Championship, for both players and coaches, but provides a phenomenal experience for spectators.”
North Carolina men’s head coach Andrew DiBitetto had similar thoughts on the upcoming conference format change, particularly in terms of the postseason preparation it might offer.
“I think this is an exciting change for our ACC Championship,” he said. “Bringing match play to the event allows us to better align with how our national champion is crowned. Also, cuts in college golf are rare. For the most part, we only see them at regionals and at the national championship.
“I believe both elements, the match play and the cut, gives the student-athletes in our conference the opportunity to be better prepared for NCAAs. When you combine the new format with an ACC that is extremely talented and deep in men’s golf, I think we are getting ready to create a highly competitive, intense and pressure-packed championship.”
The ACC joins a short but distinguished list of conferences that have changed to a match-play format in the recent past. On the men’s side, the Sun Belt Conference, Conference USA and the SEC use the format while only the SEC determines its winner by match play on the women’s side.
On the men’s side at least, the ACC Championship has landed some prestigious venues for the next four years, including Capital City Club (Crabapple Course) in Atlanta, Georgia for 2021; The Clubs by Joe (Shark’s Tooth Course) in Panama City, Florida in 2022; The Country Club of North Carolina (Dogwood Course) in Pinehurst, North Carolina in 2023 and Charlotte Country Club in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2024.
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