After winning ACC title as freshman, Peter Fountain moving toward Raleigh’s golf elite
There’s not a lot of golf history left to be made around the Triangle but Peter Fountain managed to make some last weekend, becoming the first freshman to win the ACC men’s golf title in 15 years, and the first to do it at North Carolina.
For the 20-year-old Broughton grad, it was the high point — to date — of a two-year run that has seen him win the North Carolina Amateur, finish as low amateur at the North Carolina Open and steadily climb the world amateur rankings.
After Fountain held off N.C. State fifth-year senior Benjamin Shipp to win the title by a stroke, his second college win of his freshman season, he felt for the first time like he belonged among the firmament of golfers he grew up idolizing or competing against, from pros like Webb Simpson, 2017 U.S. Amateur champ Doc Redman and 19-year-old Akshay Bhatia to his older brothers who played at Davidson and North Carolina.
“I would say yes,” Fountain said. “It’s just cool being able to grow up in Raleigh and there’s so many good golfers. It’s a blessing to be able to grow up in that and have older brothers that definitely pushed me every day. The ACC championship helped me push me toward that, I believe.”
And people noticed.
“I saw the scores from the ACC championship last week,” Simpson said in a text message. “Young players are so much more advanced today and what Peter did was really impressive.”
Fountain’s hot streak came to an end Tuesday at Duke, where he finished six shots from moving on at a U.S. Open local qualifier, but the Tar Heels will find out Wednesday where they’re headed for NCAA regionals, and Fountain has emerged as a key player for North Carolina, seventh in the latest Golfweek rankings.
“He wouldn’t like it for me to call him little, but he’s just this sweet kid with a beautiful soul, an amazing person,” North Carolina golf coach Andrew DiBitetto said. “But he gets into competition, and it doesn’t matter if it’s golf or basketball or home-run derby or pickleball, but he’s sweet little Pete until this trigger goes off and you can see it in his eyes. He’s a fierce, fierce competitor. You’d never know it talking to him standing in a parking lot or going out to dinner.”
The NCAA tournament will be the end of a busy spring and the beginning of a busier summer. The ACC title bumped Fountain up to 60th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, only 10 spots from an exemption into the U.S. Amateur at Oakmont. He’s now seventh among Americans 20 or younger, and a strong NCAA showing could move him into the top 50 before he’s scheduled to qualify for the U.S. Am in Asheboro in June.
His remaining schedule includes the North & South Amateur at Pinehurst and the Western Amateur, but he’ll miss defending his N.C. Am title to play in the prestigious Sunnehanna Amateur in Johnston, Pa., which includes among its past winners one Webb Simpson.
While Simpson played his college golf at Wake Forest, the Broughton connection is strong between the two.
“I look up to Webb Simpson the most, because he’s such a good dude but he’s also just an amazing player,” Fountain said. “I feel like he’s, I would say, my role model. And honestly, just my older brothers are the people I look up to the most in golf because I can ask them anything and they’ve been in the same situation. They’re my mentors for golf.”
Simpson was the ACC freshman of the year in 2005, but he finished tied for 13th in the ACC championship. Fountain’s early success on the in-state amateur circuit and now at North Carolina has certainly raised questions whether he could potentially be the Triangle’s next great golfer. Jay Haas, in 1973, is among 10 other freshmen to win the ACC. The last was Georgia Tech’s Cameron Tringale in 2006, who has made over $13 million on the PGA Tour.
Fountain isn’t thinking about that quite yet.
“It’s cool, but we’re all out there for a reason,” Fountain said. “When I’m out there, I’m not looking at it like we’re freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors. I’m competing against the same guy. All the guys, the year they are doesn’t mean much to me. It’s definitely cool to win it as a freshman. Three more chances now.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 2:46 PM with the headline "After winning ACC title as freshman, Peter Fountain moving toward Raleigh’s golf elite."
