Gills and Richards lead the way in Rhody win
The University of Rhode Island golf team was victorious for the first time this season, placing first in a field of six at the Wildcat Fall Invitational.
Villanova played host at Radnor Valley Country Club for the event. Fairleigh Dickinson, Hoftra, St. Peter’s, and Bryant were the other attendees.
The three-round event allowed URI a chance to take the lead over Fairleigh Dickinson during the final round of play, capturing a victory by 4 strokes. Brandon Gillis led the Rams and placed third overall, finishing at -2.
Day one left the Rams with work to do: they sat in second place, trailing Fairleigh Dickinson by 3 strokes. Bryson Richards led the Rams in the first day tallying an impressive 68. However no other players finished at even-par or lower, Gillis served as the closest follower with a 71.
Day two allowed the Rams to tie Fairleigh Dickinson’s score of 282, to prevent the possibility of a win from slipping away. Gillis and Aidan O’Donovan both finished under par this time, Gillis shooting a -2 68, and O’Donovan with a -1 69.
On day three, URI needed to shoot extremely well in order to give themselves a chance. They did that in tremendous fashion, shooting a team 287, the best in the field for the round, and seven strokes better than Fairleigh Dickinson.
This time around it was Gillis as the sole hero, recording the only under-par score of the round across the entire field. However, Gillis felt it was just another day at the office.
“We all know we can play a little better as a team,” Gillis said.
He described the performance as “nothing special.” Burke had a similar opinion on the tournament, and on the fall in general.
Coach Burke was more than impressed with Gillis, claiming he is well on his way to a successful season.
“Brandon [Gillis] was in total control this week,” Burke said. “To have 49 holes of par or birdie is phenomenal for a 54-hole tournament, and Brandon is well on his way to reaching his potential.”
Although Gillis took the lead in URI’s scoring this week, Richards also had a phenomenal tournament, finishing only a stroke behind Gillis in the final standings.
Burke said that Richards was struggling with his mental game in recent performances, but not this weekend.
“None of that happened,” Burke said. “I expect Bryson to go back to being the Bryson we knew and really giving us some crazy good scores.”
O’Donovan showed raw potential in his fourth event of his collegiate career. Burke sees this as a continued trend in the future; however, he also acknowledged that maturation is also in order.
“Aidan has every physical attribute to be one of the best golfers ever at URI, he shows flashes of brilliance, but he needs to have a lot more maturity and has to gain control of his emotions,” Burke said. “[O’Donovan] has a very bright future if he starts to do the little things a whole lot better,” he added.
Looking back on the event, Burke recognized that the performance was not their best and they need to all be better this week.
“We all know we can play a little better as a team,” Gillis said.
“A lot of people say we’ve had a great fall,” Burke said. “We’ve had a 3rd, 4th, 2nd and a 1st [place finish]. But we really should have two wins and be in a dogfight for a third”, Burke said. “We really need to play our very best next week to win, because our guys really want to win that one.”
URI golf is back in action this upcoming Sunday through Tuesday, as they visit UConn in the UConn Invitational at Greathorse as the defending champions.