The University of Rhode Island men’s golf team traveled to Glen Cove, New York for the Nassau Intercollegiate this week, their final tournament of the fall season.
Their top performer, fifth-year Bryson Richards, was coming off an individual win a week ago and was able to carry that momentum into this week.
Richards won for a second consecutive week at the Nassau Country Club with a score of three-under for the tournament. This was his fifth win of his career, and second of the season.
“You go into every tournament wanting to be in contention,” Richards said. “When you’re playing well, it becomes an addicting feeling.”
As for the team, they had their second straight second place finish at +26. They finished behind Long Island University, who won the tournament with a score of +21. URI Head Coach Gregg Burke was not satisfied with second place finishes, and felt the team should be in a spot where they are winning tournaments.
“It was incredibly disappointing not being able to get the win,” Burke said.
Richards had dealt with injuries earlier this season, missing two tournaments before returning at the Sacred Heart Classic last week. These were the first tournaments he had missed in his collegiate career, which he said allowed him to go into the past two tournaments with a different mindset.
“I didn’t know where my game was going to be after having a month off,” Richards said. “Coming back with zero expectations, I was just out there enjoying it again.”
In round one of the tournament, Richards shot a two-over par round and saw himself sitting in a tie for seventh, two shots behind the lead. It was in the last 10 holes of round two where Richards really started to find his groove for the tournament, shooting three-under. Unlike last week where he was trailing throughout a lot of the tournament, he held a one stroke lead over the rest of the field heading into the final round. However, he wanted to make sure this did not impact his thought process throughout the round.
“I just tried to keep doing the same things I was doing the first couple rounds,” Richards said. “When you’re teeing off in that final round, you can’t play any more conservatively than you have in those first two rounds.”
From start to finish on Tuesday, Richards never surrendered his lead, shooting a round of two-under and securing his win. Once again, he shot three-under in the final 10 holes of round three, taking control of the tournament. He finished three strokes ahead of anyone else in the field, shot two of the four under par rounds in the entire tournament and set the all-time tournament scoring record.
“When we got to the tournament, they said the course was designed so that no one would go under par, yet one man did,” Burke said. “To go back to back rounds under par on that golf course is unbelievable.”
Aside from Richards, the team has seen a lot of their younger talent step up throughout the season, according to Burke. That was no different this week, as first-year Josiah Tong had the best finish of his career.
Tong came out of the gates with a round one of two-over and saw himself just two shots back of the lead. After a tougher round two of four-over, Tong bounced back and shot a round of even par, tied for the third best round of the day. He finished the tournament at six-over and in sixth place.
Along with Tong, the Rams got another strong performance from reigning Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week, first-year Tony Liu, who finished 12-over and tied for 11th. Liu went into the final day at six-over and in the top 10, but struggled in the final round, finishing with a bogey and double bogey on holes 17 and 18 and a round of six-over. Still, Burke talked about the importance of being able to get this kind of production from two first year players.
“Josiah and Tony have shown a toughness on the golf course that we need throughout the lineup,” Burke said. “The message has been sent to them that they are an integral part of the team and we need them.”
Results from the rest of the team included 12-over (tied 11th) from fourth-year Geronimo Narizzano, as well as 17-over (27th) from second-year Aidan O’Donovan.
This was the second consecutive week where the Rams saw themselves in second place after each day of the tournament. They only trailed LIU by three strokes after round one, but saw that deficit grow to nine strokes in round two. They were able to cut that down to five in the final round, but weren’t quite able to break through.
The team will now head into their offseason and continue to prepare for the spring season. Burke expressed disappointment with this fall season as a whole, but discussed the positive outlook for the spring and how they feel they have developed throughout the fall.
“The outcome in every tournament was tremendously disappointing this season,” Burke said. “But, for us to head into the spring with three guys, Bryson, Tony, and Josiah, who have all shown the ability to be at par or under is very encouraging.”
With the combination of veteran leadership from Richards and production from younger talent like Liu and Tong, the URI men’s golf team will look to build from this fall season and find some wins when the spring comes around.