Fourth-year Bryson Richards’ three-under 68 on day two moved him to fourth in the standings on day two. PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
After a bottom tier finish at Elon last weekend, the University of Rhode Island Golf team was in search of a better performance this week at Villanova’s Wildcat Spring Invitational.
The field contained 14 other schools, including fellow Atlantic 10 member La Salle, who placed second. Also in attendance was Villanova, who finished first, and Lehigh, who finished third.
Rhode Island’s first day served as a moderate performance. Their score of 294 for the day placed them at seventh in the field.
Rhode Island’s first-year Aidan O’Donovan shot four-under 67 on the first day, leaving him in second place after the first 18 holes.
However, he was the lone golfer under par for the first round. Fourth-year Bryson Richards shot a two-over 73, fifth-year Brandon Gillis shot a three-over 74, fourth-year Andrew DiPetrillio shot a one-over 72, second-year Chuck Tragesser finished the first round four-over with a 75 and third-year Geronimo Narizzano’s five-over 76 ranked lowest.
However, after the first day, Richards performed much better on the second 18. His three-under 68 on the second day catapulted himself 21 places forward in the standings, all the way to a tie for fourth.
“I’ve worked hard on being able to, even when I feel like I don’t play well, to find some sort of positive in that,” Richards said. “I thought I was able to do that this weekend and it’s nice to go the other way, as opposed to playing well in the first round and not playing well in the second round. It’s nice to see your name climb up the leaderboard on the last day.”
Head coach Gregg Burke felt that Richards’ impact this spring has gone further than these two days in Pennsylvania.
“Bryson played great,” Burke said. “Bryson’s played four tournaments this Spring, and his worst finish is seventh. So he is slowly becoming the dominant player he projected to be at the end of last year.”
However, Burke felt that Bryson’s play was not very different from day one to day two.
“The irony of it is, he hit it the exact same both days,” Burke said. “He didn’t hit it better the second day, he just scored better.”
Burke claimed that Bryson caught several bad breaks due to the course’s aerated greens.
“[Bryson] hit an absolutely PGA Tour level shot into a green, and it would hit a sandy aeration hole and not move after that, when he expected it to zip back or he expected it to bounce forward,” Burke said. “So he probably got more bad breaks the first day than he deserved, and then the second 18 he was just solid.”
Gills also improved on day two, his one-over 72 moved him 11 spots up to a tie for 23rd. However, he was the only other Ram to move up in the standings.
A six-over 77 on day two moved O’Donovan from second place, to 13th. DiPetrillio’s five-over 76 dropped him from 18th place to a tie for 32nd. Tragesser matched his day one score with yet another 75, but he still moved down from 45th to 46th place. Narizzano’s four-over 75 retained his status of 52nd place.
The day two performance totalled to a 290, which was enough to move Rhode Island up one place to sixth place for the tournament. Iona College’s eight place drop on the second day allowed for Rhode Island’s jump.
The Rams now travel to State College, Pennsylvania to compete in the Rutherford Intercollegiate, hosted by Pennsylvania State University on Apr. 15 and Apr. 16.