By Harrison Leone
Sports Assignment Editor
Ithaca, N.Y. is known for its gorges, Finger Lakes and higher education. For the St. Bonaventure golf team, however, it will be the site of the next challenge in its fall season. The team heads to the Cornell Invitational this weekend.
Last season at the invitational, St. Bonaventure finished sixth out of a field of 12 schools across the Northeast. The team held the lead after the first day of play, but squandered its lead on day two. Coach John Powers said while his team wasn’t necessarily unhappy with its finish, he felt they could have performed even better.
“Sixth wasn’t a bad place, but we were obviously disappointed because we were leading after the first round,” Powers said. “We just didn’t play very well the second day.”
This season, Powers said he expects even more from his team. The third-year coach believes his team has the ability to compete with the top of the pack at the meet.
“We have the ability to be near the top, for sure,” Powers said. “I think a top-four or a top-five finish would be what we’re shooting for here.”
While confident in his team’s abilities, Powers also stressed the quality of the schools that will be attending the invitational this season.
“There are some schools that are playing really well that are going to be at this event,” Powes said. “Binghamton is going to be there, and they just won the Colgate Invitational where they beat us by quite a few shots, but I think if we bring our game and are able to put four solid scores together, we’ll be able to be right up there with them.”
In addition to Binghamton, who won the 2012 invitational, Powers also noted several other schools as potentially difficult competition.
“There’s a bunch of very good schools that will be there,” Powers said. “Between Binghamton, Cornell playing on their home course, Lafayette, Drexel, Dartmouth and Towson, we’re going to have to play very well to get into the top four.”
The invitational is held on the Robert Trent Jones Course, designed and completed in 1954 by the renowned golf architect and Cornell alumnus Robert Trent Jones. Jones, perhaps the world’s most famous course designer, designed more than 500 courses during his career, starting his career with the Cornell Course. Powers said playing on a Jones course is a significant event among golfers.
“He’s very well-known throughout the golf world,” Powers said. “Cornell and Colgate were his first two designs, so there’s some similarity we hope to use to our advantage.”
Powers highlighted the length of the course as being its most distinct and possibly most challenging aspect.
“The length can have an effect on some guys, and the green complexes are pretty challenging,” Powers said. “Here at Bartlett, there are very tough greens, which should help us at Cornell. That’s the hardest thing about going to different courses. The textures of the greens change every week and you need to be very precise and accurate in order to get close to the hole.”
Powers said he hopes to see his team perform well around the green to ensure a top finish.
“When we get out on the road, our biggest area of improvement is that we can improve our performance on the greens, (such as) chipping, putting and the short game in general,” Powers said. “We need to be very thorough in our preparation on Friday to make sure that we know as much as we can about the course for when we meet up on Saturday.”
