By Harrison Leone
Contributing Writer
The Bonnies hope to rebound after logging their lowest tournament finish of the season.
The team’s next opportunity is in Appalachian, N.Y. at the Binghamton Invitational Oct. 7.
“Binghamton has a lot of experience, and there’ll be a lot of solid teams there,” Coach John Powers said. “We’ll have our hands full, but hopefully we’ll be ready to go.”
Powers named host Binghamton, Seton Hall and fellow Atlantic 10 school Fordham as the strongest opponents in the tournament.
SBU traveled to Ithaca last weekend for the Cornell Invitational.
The Bonnies were in first place Saturday out of twelve schools from across the Northeast. Sunday saw the Bonnies fall 20 strokes from the lead, and the team slid back to 6th place.
“On the first day, we played about as good as we could play as a team,” Powers said. “On the second day, it was about the worst team score we could’ve shot.”
Senior Brian McKenna and freshman Josh Stauffer paced the Bonnies on the first day of play. Both finished Saturday with scores of 72 and helped Bonaventure earn a three-stroke lead over then-2nd place Binghamton. The two helped the Bonnies shoot a total team score of 294.
Sunday was not as kind to the Bonnies. The team shot a collective 319. Binghamton was able to pull ahead and win the tournament for the second consecutive year. Fordham, Cornell, Bucknell and Lafayette rounded out the top five, respectively.
We played solid the first day,” McKenna said. “We just didn’t carry it into the second day.”
Picking up where he left off Saturday, Stauffer led SBU and finished tied for sixth place out of 75 golfers after shooting 77.
McKenna was disqualified Sunday because of a self-reported scorecard discrepancy.
McKenna shot a 78, yet he reported a 77.
He disqualified himself after discovering the error after the round.
“That’s just the way the rules are,” Powers said. “That was an honorable move by him.”
Also competing for the Bonnies; redshirt freshman Darren Simmons, junior Scott Brady and senior Greg Horvath. Simmons shot a 153. Brady and Horvath tied at 158.
Patrick Milkovich played in the tournament as an individual participant for Bonaventure. Milkovich shot a 154 over the weekend. The score was good enough for the freshman to finish tied for 22nd.
Powers was not discouraged by the team’s performance and stressed the importance of looking ahead to future competitions.
“Things just didn’t go our way, but that’s golf,” Powers said. “We’re not going to make any excuses. You just have to get back to work and make sure you’re prepared for the next one.”
