It was a rollercoaster of a fall season for men’s golf. Most recently, the Rams finished their fall slate in the Georgetown Intercollegiate, playing last Monday and Tuesday at The Member Club Four Streams in Maryland.
There, the Rams finished 11th out of 12 teams, which included Princeton, and Atlantic 10 rivals St. Joseph’s and St. Bonaventure. Rhody shot a combined 894, which was 42 over par.
The Rams were paced by Senior Dawson Jones, who shot two over for the tournament and also recorded the low round for Rhode Island, shooting a three-under-par 68. Jones finished tied for fourth in the tournament, nine shots back of the winner Evan Quinn, of Princeton.
“He’s obviously our best player by a longshot,” said Rhode Island Head Coach Gregg Burke. “The sky’s the limit for him next semester.”
Also playing for the Rams was redshirt senior Brody King, redshirt junior Jason Short, sophomore Chris Francoeur and junior Burke Barsamian. King finished in a tie for 17th at the Georgetown Intercollegiate, shooting a combined 218, which was good enough for five over par for the tournament. Short shot a combined 229, which overall was 16 over par; Francoeur shot a combined 232, which was 19 over par; and Barsamian rounded out Rhode Island, shooting a combined 250, which was 37 over par.
For the fall, Rhode Island started with a win, beating out 13 other teams in the Doc Gimmler which took place in Farmingdale, New York at Bethpage Red Golf Course. In their second tournament, the Rams followed a win with a fourth-place finish out of 20 teams, at the Hartford Hawks Invitational, which took place at Bull’s Bridge Golf Club in South Kent, Connecticut. That fourth-place finish was not a success in Coach Burke’s eyes, however.
“I wouldn’t call the Hartford Hawks a success,” Burke said. “We had three players go 15 under, and finish in the top five. Our next closest player was eightieth. I’m not going to call that a success. It was right where we wanted to be coming out of the Gimmler, but we just couldn’t get anything out of the four and five spot.”
In regards to the season Brody King had for the Rams, Coach Burke said, “Brody has been the biggest surprise. He came in as a number four, and now he is a rock solid number two for us.” Burke also remarked on Chris Francoeur and Jason Short.
“We need more out of Chris, we need more consistency out of him,” said Burke. “He’s one of the most talented players we’ve had in the program since I’ve been here and we just need more consistency from him.”
On Jason Short, Burke said, “We need more out of him too. Jason needs to be in the fairway off the tee. If he’s in the fairway off the tee there’s not a hole that would intimidate him. We’re gonna get great scores from him.”