Team Canada

Team Canada’s Albin Choi of Toronto, a junior at North Carolina State University (NC State), shot a final-round 4-under par 68 on Sunday to claim his fifth career collegiate victory, capturing the season-opening Tar Heel Invitational at the University of North Carolina’s (UNC) Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Recently selected to represent Canada at the upcoming World Amateur Team Championships in Antalya, Turkey in early October, Choi bested UNC senior Patrick Barrett of Pinehurst, N.C. by six strokes on the individual leaderboard, finishing with a 54-hole tally of 11-under par 205.

Choi’s win ties him with Tim Clark and Nolan Mills for second all-time in program history, five shy of Bright’s Grove, Ont.’s Matt Hill’s victory total of 10.

Choi is coming off a standout summer campaign in which he earned low amateur honours at the RBC Canadian Open, won the Ontario Amateur Championship, reached the Round of 16 at the U.S. Amateur Championship and finished tied for first in stroke play at the prestigious North & South Men’s Amateur Championship. He also claimed medalist honours at a U.S. Amateur Qualifier.

NC State finished fourth in the team portion of the competition, 18 strokes back of Duke.

Team Canada’s Mitch Sutton of London, Ont., a senior at NC State, finished T27.

NC State will compete next a little less than a month from now at Duke’s Rod Myers Invitational in Durham, N.C. Choi won that event in 2010 during his freshman campaign.