In his first tournament of the spring, junior Andrew DiPetrillo found himself one shot off the lead after the first round before faltering down the stretch. PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
In their final tournament before the Atlantic 10 Championship, the University of Rhode Island Golf team finished fifth out of 20 teams with a final score of +13 (589), 11 strokes behind winner Iona at this weekend’s Abarta Coca-Cola Collegiate Invitational.
It wasn’t the result the team wanted, but a bright spot was that they finished ahead of other A-10 rivals St. Bonaventure and Fordham.
“To put it simply, we played very poorly, we came in fifth place,” Head Coach Gregg Burke said. “On the second day, the course looked good and the weather was nearly perfect and we just didn’t capitalize on that opportunity.”
Leading the way for the Rams was redshirt senior Brandon Gillis, who finished tied for ninth at even par. After shooting a 3-over 75 on the first day of competition, Gillis put together a 3-under 69, climbing 18 spots up the leaderboard to finish in the top 10.
Junior Bryson Richards also made an impressive jump in the leaderboard from the first to the second day of competition, moving from tied for 27th to tied for 11th at 2-over par.
Jordan Brajcich finished third for the Rams at 5-over par at 149 to finish tied for 39th and, competing in his first round in 17 months, junior Andrew DiPetrillo placed 52nd with a 7-over 151. He began the final day of competition one shot off the lead with a 2-under 70, but faltered in the second round after shooting a 9-over 81.
Rounding off URI’s road trip was senior Austin Fox, who finished the tournament in 101th place with a final score of 163, 19 strokes over par.
“Even though it wasn’t our best outing of the season, I think there were some positives that came from it,” Richards said. “Andrew came out and hit his first round of the season and Bradon played well, so we did some things well.”
After the first day of the event, URI was in second place with a 5-over 293, trailing only to Iona College at 4-over 292.
Day 1 ended with Brajcich finishing tenth with a 1-over 73 after DiPetrillo’s third place performance. Gillis and Richards tied for 27th, finishing with a 3-over 75 respectively. Closing out the day for URI was Austin Fox, who finished tied for 101st with an 11-over 83 in a less than ideal performance.
“We definitely struggled this weekend,” Richards said. “Since the season started, we’ve only had one weekend off and it showed because of the mental mistakes we had.”
Fortunately for the team, rest comes at the right time. They will have the next two weekends off before returning to the course for the A-10 Championships on April 29 to May 1 in Kissimmee, Fla — a tournament they haven’t won since 2002. Burke is aiming to use the next couple of weeks to restore the confidence that the team had to start the season.
“Early on in the season, we had lots of confidence,” Burke said. “After this weekend, not so much. So now it’s up to me and the team to build it up again, this way our confidence matches our skill level heading into the [Atlantic] 10 Championship.”