While shooting its best score of the tournament in the final round, the University of Rhode Island men’s golf team brought home a top-three finish at the Golden Horseshoe Intercollegiate in Williamsburg, Virginia this week.
Following a month-long hiatus since their tied-fifth finish at the World Golf Village Intercollegiate on Feb. 24, the Rams traveled down to Virginia for their second tournament of the spring season. The tournament was a three-round event, with the first and second rounds played on Monday and the final round on Tuesday.
The Rams got off to a rough start in the opening round on Monday, dropping to a tie for ninth place at seven-over through 13 holes. Second-year Josiah Tong led a charge to the finish as he made a birdie and an eagle on his final two holes of the round, which catapulted him from three-over to even and just outside the top 10 on the individual leaderboard.
“Josiah is a monster talent for us,” URI Head Coach Gregg Burke said. “He’s shown at different times that he can definitely go low because he can make a lot of shots.”
First-year Tyler Bruneau played the steadiest golf for Rhode Island in the first round, making the least amount of bogeys on the team with three. He got off to a quick start with an eagle on the second hole and played consistently from there, finishing as the only member of the team in red figures at one-under and inside the top five.
Overall, Rhody shot four-over across the first 18 holes on Monday, which put them in third behind Longwood University and the College of William and Mary.
Once again in the second round, Bruneau led the way for the Rams with a second consecutive round of one-under. Bruneau entered the final day of the tournament in fourth place and just four shots behind the three-way tie at the top of the individual leaderboard.
“[Bruneau] has established [himself] clearly as our number two player,” Burke said. “He’s a warrior; he bounces back.”
The Rams entered the final day of the tournament still in third place at nine-over, however had their work cut out for them, trailing Longwood by 10 shots. They quickly made a dent in this deficit in the final round, with Tong and first-year Luke Stennett both making an eagle and Bruneau adding a birdie on the par-five second hole.
“We were barely off the putting green and two guys were seven-under,” Burke said. “We had what we wanted, we thought we needed six-under to win, but more would be helpful.”
All of a sudden, Rhode Island found itself in a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard with Longwood and William and Mary entering the final nine holes on Tuesday. This surge was led by its top player, Stennett, who went six-under in his first 12 holes of the day. Although he struggled to the finish, shooting three-over in his final four holes, Stennett still finished tied-eighth at one-over, extending his streak of top-10 finishes in every event of his collegiate career.
“I don’t know that I’ve laid eyes on a player with more talent than [Stennett] has,” Burke said. “Now, there are guys with more maturity, there are guys with more experience, but I don’t believe I’ve laid eyes on anyone with more talent than Luke.”
Like Stennett, most of the Rams struggled to the clubhouse in the final round, as they fell back to eight shots behind the lead and were actually jumped on the leaderboard by Drexel University down the stretch. The hole that gave Rhode Island glaring issues on Tuesday was the par-three 12th, where the team combined to shoot nine-over across the five players. Despite finishing in third at 12-over, Burke expressed his displeasure with how the team closed out the tournament.
“There’s no mixed emotion; it’s a bitter disappointment,” Burke said. “That’s not who we are, to have teams come back on us. So, our work is cut out for us.”
As they prepare for the remainder of the spring schedule, the Rams will focus on limiting the big numbers that caused their downfall this week, according to Burke.
“We’re going to play some rounds where we score differently so that pars, eagles and birdies all mean the same thing,” Burke said. “Hopefully the guys will learn how to make more pars.”
Rhode Island will get a week off before returning to action at the Dragon Match Play Invitational in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania on April 7-8.
