BY COLBY GAINES, STAFF WRITER
As the fall season comes to an end for St. Bonaventure golf, the men traveled to North Carolina last weekend for the ODU/OBX intercollegiate to come away with a 15th place finish out of 17 teams—tallying an 897 54-hole total.
Although the competition at Powells Point may have not been the result the team wanted, the Bonnies came to play. Graduate Danny Gianniny paced St. Bonaventure with a second round 2-under 69, along with his first round 73 and a third round 78. Along with Gianniny, graduate Christian Chapman followed with his 75, 71, and 74 contributions. Both Gianniny and Chapman tallied 220 across the three days, tying for 40th overall out of 88 players.
Additionally for the Bonnies, Jack Geise came in at third on the team with his 75-78-75, while Lance Sininger finished the tournament with 75-77-79. Rounding out at five in the lineup was Jude Cummings, shooting 89-80-77.
St. Bonaventure golf has had a rather rocky season, placing top-five in only one out of their four tournaments this fall (Colgate Invitational). However, they won all three of their head-to-head matchups against Niagara, Army and Siena.
“It was not how we wanted to end the fall and our weaknesses were definitely exposed,” Coach
Ryan Swanson admitted. “[I’m] hoping that leaves us hungry to get it fixed by March and continue to improve up until the A-10’s.”
When asked about expectations for the upcoming spring season, Swanson replied “Expectations are always high, but they don’t mean anything if we can’t execute…once we start executing more consistently as a team, instead of one or two guys at a time, then we will determine expectations.”
A major highlight for the Bonnies’ fall season, however, falls within Chapman’s performance this year—finishing with the best fall season in program history, averaging 71.0 strokes over 16 rounds. During the fall semester Chapman marked five rounds of 67 or lower and set the record for the St. Bonaventure all-time low round (65) last month at the VCU Invitational.
“It’s a great honor, for sure,” Chapman explained. “There’s been a lot of really good players that come through St. Bonaventure golf and to be able to put my name up there at the top means a lot, but I know there’s a lot more work to be done. I know I didn’t quite have it this weekend and it’s a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth going into the spring, so I’m going to use this as motivation to keep trying to get better each and every day.”
“[Christian’s] on pace to shatter every record in the book,” Swanson added. “Records that will likely stand for a very long time…Nobody works harder…and [he] has the ability to do what many can’t at this level… [I’m] very excited for him to make a run next spring.”
St. Bonaventure will look to improve off their fall season while they await the spring championship season, where they’ll hit the green for the first time on March 7-8 at Ross Collegiate Classic held at Mid Pines Golf Course in Southern Pines, N.C.
gainesca21@bonaventure.edu
