Rhode Island Men’s golf had a successful start to their 2018-19 campaign with a team win at the Doc Gimmler Tournament in Farmingdale, New York in early September.
Playing at the historic Bethpage State Park in New York, the tournament began at the Bethpage Red Course, the neighbor of the Black Course, one of the harder tracks in all of golf and the future site of the 2019 PGA Championship. The field consisted of 14 teams and 84 golfers overall. The Red Course played at over 7,000 yards, with the first and second rounds being played on Saturday, Sept. 8, and the final round was played the day after.
Rhody won the event at one stroke over as a team, beating out the University of Connecticut, Johnson and Wales (FL) and Yale, who all tied for second at four strokes over. Rhody was solo second as a team after the first day but held onto the lead over the next two rounds for the tournament win. URI has now won the Doc Gimmler in two of the last three years, as they also won the event in 2016. Also with a win in their opening event of the season, this is now the fourth time in the last five years Rhody golf has opened the season with a tournament win.
Senior Dawson Jones was the top Ram finisher, in solo third place at five under par. Jones shot two under 68 in his first two rounds and then finished the tournament with a one-under 69, losing by two strokes to Yale’s James Nicholas, who finished seven strokes under for the tournament. Jones was also named Atlantic 10 golfer of the week.
Rounding out the other Rams on the leaderboard, redshirt junior Jason Short finished in a tie for eleventh, shooting one stroke over in the three-day tournament, with a final round three under 67, his best of the tournament. Redshirt Junior Brody King finished in a tie for eighteenth, finishing three over for the tournament. Sophomore Chris Francoeur finished in a tie for thirtieth at seven over for the tournament. Rounding out the Ram golfers is Freshman Austin Fox, Fox finished in a tie for 49th, finishing at 10 over for the tournament. In an interview with GoRhody Head Coach, Gregg Burke said, “I was particularly proud that we played in the final group with UConn and JWU, in the toughest part of the day, weather-wise, and never let either team take the lead.”