As young talent shined, the University of Rhode Island men’s golf team outlasted the rest of the 16-team field at the Ryan T. Lee Memorial Collegiate over the weekend to win their first team title in nearly two years.
URI traveled to Shuttle Meadow Country Club in Kensington, Connecticut for their first official tournament of this season on Saturday and Sunday. Originally, they were supposed to get their season underway the week prior at a tournament hosted by North Carolina State, but it was canceled due to weather after just 10 holes. URI Head Coach Gregg Burke illustrated how this rain-shortened tournament still proved to be useful for the team heading into Connecticut.
“We were in second place at NC State when the tournament got canceled,” Burke said. “There was a lot of energy to continue that good play.”
Early in round one on Saturday, first-year Tyler Bruneau was making a statement in his collegiate debut. He went bogey-free and five-under through his first 15 holes, leading the Rams to an early four stroke lead atop the team leaderboard. Bruneau went two-over in his final three holes, but still was tied for the individual lead at three-under following day one.
“Honestly, I kind of just went out there and didn’t really think of much,” Bruneau said. “Just playing shot-by-shot and hole-by-hole.”
After a tough stretch of three straight bogies had him at three-over through 13 holes, third-year Aidan O’Donovan fought back on Saturday to put up a score for the team. He went two-under in his final five holes of the day for a round of one-over.
“The history with Aidan has been to not bounce back,” Burke said. “He did the opposite and he made two birdies down the stretch and I thought that breathed life into the rest of the team.”
The Rams went into the final round on Sunday in a three-way tie for the lead at even par with Sacred Heart University and Manhattan College. As the final round progressed, URI and Sacred Heart began to separate themselves from the rest of the pack with seven shots separating the two teams from the rest of the field. URI had their work cut out for them, however, as Sacred Heart held a five-stroke lead at nine-under with less than nine holes to play.
Another player making his collegiate debut, first-year Luke Stennett, led a late charge for the Rams with birdies on hole 16 and 18 to complete a round of two-under. Stennett finished the tournament inside the top ten of the individual leaderboard at even par.
“Luke is a complete player already at 19,” Burke said. “When you talk about a particular shot, he’s intent on trying to absorb all the options.”
Bruneau was not only helping URI compete for the team title, but also was in the heart of contention for an individual win. Following a birdie on the 12th hole, he got to three-under for the day and was alone atop the individual leaderboard. Ultimately, Bruneau ended up finishing just one shot short of making a playoff and had to settle for a third place finish at five-under.
“It’s good to get that experience [being in contention], when you come back again you know the feeling,” Bruneau said. “Being in those situations this past summer in a lot of events helped me calm myself down.”
O’Donovan maintained his momentum from the final stretch on day one to also shoot a round of two-under on Sunday, going four-under in his final 23 holes of the tournament and finishing tied for eighth individually.
Led by the trio of Bruneau, Stennett and O’Donovan combining for six-under on the final day, the Rams made the comeback and triumphed over Sacred Heart by two shots with a team score of four-under. After a winless season last year, this marked the team’s first title since the Wildcat Fall Invitational on Sept. 26-27 in 2022.
“I told the boys coming in that we just had to be patient,” Burke said. “[Sacred Heart] had course knowledge, we didn’t, and so our patience paid off.”
Next up, the URI golf team will look to ride the momentum of this win at the UConn Invitational at GreatHorse in Hampden, Massachusetts this weekend.