The University of Rhode Island golf team traveled to Humacao, Puerto Rico, to participate in the University of North Carolina Greensboro Palmas Del Mar Collegiate.
Taking place from Sunday to Tuesday, the event featured 14 colleges and universities, notably Wake Forest University, the No. 25-ranked program in the nation according to Scoreboard, and Texas Christian University, the No. 43-ranked program in the nation.
On day one, four Rams, third-year Josiah Tong, fourth-year Aidan O’Donovan, third-year Tony Liu and second-year Tyler Bruneau worked together to earn a plus-four. Tong led Rhode Island, shooting an even-par 72.
Rhode Island finished the day with a stroke count of 292, tied for seventh place in the tournament with Kennesaw State University. Despite being tied for seventh, Rhode Island stood only three strokes out of third place.
The second day of the tournament saw Rhode Island shoot nine-under par, a total of 279 strokes, moving their total for the weekend to 571. With the performance, Rhode Island moved up to third place, sitting behind Wake Forest and TCU.
Rhode Island again was powered by Tong, amassing six birdies, finishing the day four-under at 68. Second-year Luke Stennett matched Tong’s 68 score with two eagles, two birdies, and only one bogey. Liu finished the day one-under and O’Donovan finished even-par. Bruneau was three over par.
“It honestly came with shaking off the rust,” URI Golf Head Coach Greg Burke said. “We haven’t hit outdoors since last November. We had a free tournament round where we got to learn about the golf course, but that’s just one day.”
The third and final day did not go as planned. Bruneau, Stennett and O’Donovan shot a combined seven-under over the final 15 holes they played, but unfortunately had a bad stretch of three holes from hole 12 to 15, shooting a combined 11-over par.
Rhode Island finished the day with 288 strokes, rounding off the tournament with a total of 859. The Rams dropped from third to a tie for sixth place.
Coming into the weekend, the team had high expectations for themselves, according to Burke.
“We’re very talented, and we’ve worked incredibly hard in the weight room and with indoor hitting,” Burke said. “We were hopeful. We came here. There were seven teams ranked higher than us in the NCAA ranking system, and I was really hoping that we finished third, fourth or fifth.”
In hindsight of falling short on expectations, Burke praised Tong, who led the team for the first two days of the tournament.
“Josiah has matured tremendously,” Burke said. “He came in as a mature young man, but he’s matured as a golfer. He just seems so confident out there.”
Moving forward, Burke took responsibility for the fall in placement and is setting out to correct his mistake.
“I’m going to take a hit on us today,” Burke said. “Yesterday, instead of sticking with the normal routine after the round, I cut short how much we hit after the round because it was raining. Then I cut study hall short by a half hour, and I let [the team] go out with their parents instead of sticking with our original schedule. I won’t do that again.”
Rhode Island will be back in action on March 2, when it heads to the Sam Ryder Invitational in Daytona Beach, Fla., hosted by Stetson University.
