The University of Rhode Island men’s golf team couldn’t recover from a tough opening round at the Cutter Creek Intercollegiate in Snow Hill, North Carolina this weekend as they finished 13th out of 15 teams.
Before the tournament began, Rhode Island made the decision to shake things up in their lineup, setting up first-years Seb Carlsson and Owen Rooney to both make their spring debuts in North Carolina. URI Head Coach Gregg Burke discussed some of the factors that went into making that change.
“We’re coming down the stretch to see who we’re going to bring to A-10s [the Atlantic 10 Championship],” Burke said. “This last tournament was a way to begin to determine who was ready to play for the A-10s.”
The Rams struggled to get things going in the first round on Friday as they shot +20 as a team and sat in last place. Fifth-year Bryson Richards had a very up-and-down day with six bogies and five birdies, which all came together to a round of one-over par. Following the round, he was five back of the lead and tied for 22nd individually.
“It was very frustrating, however it’s very easy to let those kinds of rounds go and get away from you in a hurry,” Richards said. “But, I made five birdies to right the ship and get in the clubhouse with a respectable score.”
Day two marked a mini charge up the leaderboard for the team as they shot two-over and moved up two spots to 13th place. Leading the way was first-year Tony Liu, who stayed bogey free for the day up until his final hole. He shot three-under and catapulted himself up to even par for the tournament and tied for 14th on the individual leaderboard.
Along with Liu, Rhode Island saw improvement from fourth-year Geronimo Narizzano and first-year Josiah Tong on Saturday. They both improved their scores by seven strokes from day one to two.
The improvement for Tong was just beginning, however, as he put together his best round of his young collegiate career in the final round on Sunday. Tong shot six-under and didn’t make a bogey in the entire round. Not only was it the best round of Tong’s career, but it was also the best round that any URI player has shot this season. He was tied for the second best round in the entire field and moved up 37 spots on the leaderboard for a finish of tied-42nd.
“No one is in better command of their game than he [Tong] is,” Burke said. “This is not the only six-under Josiah Tong will shoot at URI.”
Sunday also marked the best day of the weekend for the team as a whole. They shot three-under as a team and finished the tournament at 19-over and in 13th place. The team was able to shoot under par across the final two days of the tournament, but Richards explained how the tough opening round just put them too far behind the rest of the field.
“We have to do a better job in the opening rounds of not shooting ourselves out of it,” Richards said. “It would be nice to open up with one of those [under par] rounds to get out ahead of it.”
Richards and Liu both had very similar final rounds with one hole keeping them from shooting under par. Richards shot two-over while making a triple bogey on the third hole, and Liu shot one-over while making a triple bogey on the fourth hole. Liu finished the tournament at one-over and in a tie for 24th, while Richards finished at three-over and in a tie for 33rd.
Another positive showing in the final round along with Tong came from Rooney in his first start of the spring season. After shooting 15-over across the opening two rounds, he put together a round of even par on Sunday. Overall for the tournament, Rooney finished in a tie for 87th.
“Owen got better everyday and that’s a positive,” Burke said. “He gave us a great score in that final round.”
As for the rest of the team, Narizzano struggled in the final round, finishing in 99th at 23-over par and Carlsson finished at 18-over and 93rd place.
Rhode Island will turn their focus to a different style of tournament as they will be in action next at the Dragon Match Play Invitational in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania on April 8-9. This is their only match play tournament of their season, and Burke discussed the differences that come with playing a match play tournament as opposed to stroke play.
“The main thing that I love about match play is that each hole is its own match,” Burke said. “You can either be super aggressive or super conservative and you can change your strategy from hole to hole.”
URI will look to carry the momentum from their final two days in North Carolina and bounce back with a strong showing in Pennsylvania this week.