Last weekend, the golf team traveled to Pennsylvania State University to play in its final tournament before the Atlantic 10 Invitational.
Although the Bonnies finished 10th in the 12-team field at the Rutherford Intercollegiate Invitational, junior Patrick Milkovich said he was pleased with the team’s performance.
“We never gave up on the game,” Milkovich said. “We grinded it out, and that’s why we played better [than the last tournament.]”
After struggling the week before at Greenbrier, Virginia, junior Josh Stauffer reclaimed his spot as the best golfer on the team, finishing 16th out of 75 golfers. According to Stauffer, a focus on refining his iron shots led to the improvement.
Freshmen Core Long and Patrick Sheerer finished in the bottom third of the field, placing 54th and 60th, respectively. However, Stauffer saw reasons for optimism from their play, emphasizing their determination.
“A couple of the freshman stepped up,” Stauffer said. “They had tough first rounds, but came back with decent second rounds, which is nice to see.”
With no tournaments remaining before the conference championships, the Bonnies focused on fine-tuning their games in preparation for this weekend. Although pleased with the team’s performance in State College, Milkovich said that more work is needed for the Bonnies to contend for a title.
“When we’re playing good golf, we’re one of the best teams out there,” Milkovich said. “But we find a way to make a couple little mistakes here and there, and ultimately, it shoots us out of the tournament.”
Stauffer agreed with Milkovich, noting that each shot has an impact on the team.
“Overall, we need to limit our mistakes,” Stauffer said. “A-10s is the biggest tournament of the year, so you have to be smart with every shot.”
As the season draws to a close, the pressure mounts for the Bonnies to succeed, and players must deal with the added stress of an important tournament.
“I try to feed off the pressure,” Milkovich said. “I feel that if you’re not getting nervous or don’t have pressure on yourself, then you shouldn’t be out there because you’re not having fun. It’s not exciting to you.”
Perhaps no golfer feels more pressure than Stauffer, who is expected to lead the team as well as contend for an individual title. After leading last year’s tournament going into the final and eventually finishing third, Stauffer has high expectations for this year.
“Hopefully, I can put three good rounds together, Stauffer said. “I have to stick to my game plan, be patient and see what happens.”
The Atlantic 10 tournament begins today and continues through Monday. The invitational is played at Harmony Golf Reserve in Florida, and live stats from the event can be found on the St. Bonaventure athletics webpage.
