By Pat Tintle
Staff Writer
After a disappointing trip to West Virginia for the Greenbrier Invitational, the Bonnies headed back north to Rochester, N.Y. for the Oak Hill Invitational. The two-day tournament, which took place on April 21 and 22, saw the Bonnies finish in sixth place out of the seven competing schools.
Despite a strong finish in the third round, the team placed ahead of only Canisius, falling to Notre Dame, Nebraska, Boston College, Georgetown and the University of Rochester.
Coach John Powers, while not pleased with the outcome, saw some big improvements from his players throughout the invitational.
“We played well in the first and third rounds,” Powers said. “Everybody has seen significant improvement in the short game. Overall, the guys have been better with everything.”
Round one of the tournament saw a range of scores between 74 and 78 – an average on pace with the rest of the competition. Sophomore Patrick Milkovich provided the Bonnies with the lowest score of 74, but the team was unable to duplicate its success in the second round, where four out of five starters saw their scores rise into the 80s (sophomore Josh Stauffer dropped his score from 78 in the first, to 77 in the second round).
Even with an underwhelming second round, Powers saw his players step up to the challenge in Rochester, pointing out senior Chris Mackey.
“I was really impressed with Chris,” Powers said. “He gave us two solid rounds, and finished in the third with a 76. He has made a lot of improvement in each tournament. We weren’t sure if he could play at first (because of a prior ACL injury), but he was a key contributor in our lineup.”
Mackey finished the three round tournament with a score of 236. Filling out the rest of the lineup was Stauffer with a final score of 233, redshirt sophomore Darren Simons with a 236, Milkovich with a 237 and senior Scott Brady with a 251.
With the team’s regular season schedule complete, the Bonnies are heading to Tampa, Florida for the Atlantic 10 Championship from April 25-27.
According to Powers, the warmer weather should lower the team’s scores all around.
“We always play better in warm weather,” Powers said. “But we’ll also see lower scores because the courses we’ve been playing on have been very challenging.
Even though golf is an individual sport, Powers is not looking at one player to give the Bonnies the opportunity to capture the conference’s highest prize.
“Everybody needs to play their best,” Powers said. “We can’t afford to have any weak links, or else we’ll get beat by the other teams. It’s been hard for these guys to juggle school with the amount of traveling we have done this semester, but this weekend we have to go all in.”
The Bonnies are scheduled to see their first player tee off at 9:00 a.m. today. With stiff competition ahead, the Bonnies will be looking to come together as a team in order to see success, according to Powers.
“This has to be a team effort,” Powers said. “You’re not going to finish high if you don’t play well.”
