By Harrison Leone
Staff Writer
The men’s golf team hopes to build on its early successes. The next test for the Bonnies will come this upcoming weekend in Apalachin, N.Y., where the team will compete in the Binghamton University Fall Invitational. The Invitational will be held at The Links at Hiawatha.
The Invitational will be a homecoming for Bonaventure freshman Patrick Milkovich. Milkovich is a native of the Binghamton suburb of Vestal, N.Y. and grew up playing the course. Milkovich still holds the course’s 9-hole record with a score of 32.
“It’s been his home course for a long time,” Coach John Powers said. “We’re hoping to be able to draw on some of that local knowledge.”.
Powers made sure to note the whole team has been diligent in their preparation for the Binghamton Tournament.
“With classes and midterms, it makes things a little hectic for everybody,” Powers said. “But these guys have been working hard. They know what they need to do at this point.”.
The Bonnies are looking to move past their last tournament performance. St. Bonaventure recorded a 6th place finish on Sept. 23 at the Cornell Invitational. Despite the team’s slide from their 1st day lead, Powers was nonetheless encouraged by the performance of his squad.
We talked about the tournament and looked at the season as a whole so far,” Powers said. “We had our best round of the season at Cornell. We hoped to finish somewhere between second and fourth, but obviously couldn’t do that. The difference between 2nd or 3rd and 6th is so minute; you just can’t chalk that one up as a failure.”
Overall Coach Powers had a positive outlook on the fall season that has seen the Bonnies finish in the top half of every tournament in which they’ve competed, including a tournament victory at the 24th Annual Leo Keenan Invitational held in Olean.
“We had two really solid weeks there at the beginning of the season,” Powers said in reference to both the Keenan Invitational and the Navy Fall Classic.
This year the Bonnies welcomed two freshmen, Milkovich and Josh Stauffer. Powers noted the growth of his freshman players as one of the season’s highlights.
“They’ve definitely made an impact,” Powers said. “We were anticipating that coming in. We knew they were strong players. It’s exciting to look forward to the future, but we still want these guys to take it one step at a time.”
Even with the team’s strong early play, Coach Powers set his sights forward for the remainder of the season.
“Sometimes you might not have a great week, but you have to ask ‘did you take something away that can help you later in the year,’” Powers said. “We’ve been making steps in the right direction all year. It’s definitely encouraging.”
