Gillis finishes second to lead Rams
Photo contributed by: gorhody.com
The University of Rhode Island Golf team competed at the Cornell/Temple Fall Invite in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, placing second out of fifteen teams for the weekend.
The Rams got off to a flying start on day one of the tournament, taking the team lead with a score of 274 thanks to a spectacular all-around day Saturday.
It was fifth-year graduate student Brandon Gills who continued his hot start to the season with a -4 on the day thanks to six birdies, good enough for a tie at the top of the leaderboard. Sophomore Chuck Tragesser followed closely behind his teammate and birdied three of his final seven holes, finishing in fourth place with a -2 in the first round.
Senior Bryson Richards and freshman Aidan O’Donovan finished tied for eighth, each finishing even for the day, and junior Geronimo Narrizano finished tied for 38th out of 84 golfers at +4.
That first day was good enough to give the Rams a whopping five-stroke advantage heading into Sunday, but things did not go as planned for Rhody on day two.
Gillis had a +2 on Sunday, six strokes off his Saturday score, but was still able to maintain second on the leaderboard. Meanwhile, Richards and Tragesser finished tied for fifth with a +1 each. O’Donovan carded a 74 on the second day to finish with an overall score of four over and Narrizano finished 53rd for the weekend at 11 over.
That tough second day was enough for the Owls of Temple to storm back from five strokes back and win by three strokes.
Head Coach Gregg Burke said he felt this was a result of questionable decision-making on day two.
“We made some awkward decisions on Sunday,” Burke said. “We have some new guys traveling with us, and they just need some experience.”
Richards feels as though, despite the disappointing result, there were a lot of good things the team took away from the invite.
“There are positives from the tournament,” Richards said. “We have put ourselves in a position to win two weeks in a row. If we start putting it together and playing as well as we can, we can win these tournaments.”
Richards feels if these issues are addressed prior to the spring, Rhody should have big aspirations when they get to conference and NCAA tournament time.
“We are trying to win every weekend,” Richards said. “We have some great guys on the team. If we can reach our potential, the sky’s the limit for us.”
Burke is not thinking about the spring yet though and wants to take it one weekend at a time.
“Spring is a long time away,” Burke said. “For now, we are just focused on playing good competition and improving each week.”
The Rams will take a trip down to Philadelphia this weekend to compete in the Villanova Fall Invitational, where they will look to continue improving and get over that hump to secure a victory.