The Red will hit the road and head to Philadelphia this weekend for its first appearance in the Penn Big Five Classic. With the Red’s fall season coming to a close and the team set to face some of its toughest competition yet, junior Bret Perry realizes what’s at stake for the outcome in this tournament.
“We’re ranked relatively high right now so if we play well it just strengthens our ranking,” Perry said. “The better we do in big tournaments like this one, the better tournaments we’ll get invited to in the future and the more it will help out the prestige of the program.”
The impressive invite to the Penn’s Big Five Classic is a direct result of Cornell’s strong showing this season. Most recently, at the Cornell Golf Invitational at the beginning of the month, the Red finished third out of 15 teams with four of its players finishing within the top-26 in a field of 78 players.
Perry excelled quickly and finished second. A trio of Perry’s classmates followed him in the final standings, including Chad Bernstein in 12th place, Austin Lord at 19th and Robbie Fritz at 26th. An outcome such as this bodes well for the team’s performance in the upcoming tournament and Perry sets no limits on the team’s potential.
“It’ll be one of the strongest fields we’ve faced all year,” he said. “If we end up in the top-5, we will have done really well. But we’re definitely capable of winning.”
Among the teams Cornell will face this weekend are Georgetown, Penn State and the tournament’s host, Penn, who finished 11th at last year’s Big Five Classic. Despite the promising competition, Perry is confident in Cornell’s competitive edge and ability to come out on top.
“We have arguably one of the most consistent teams in the district at this point,” Perry said.” If you look at what we’ve shot outside matches it’s the same as what we shoot in the matches themselves, and that’s what you want. You don’t want any outliers or anyone shooting huge numbers. Consistency is the key for us.”
Furthermore, Perry doesn’t limit Cornell’s consistency to individual showings but argues that it applies to the range of talent among the squad’s players.
“All the players on the team have a similar amount of talent,” Perry said. “We’ll all do well and I hope I can do my part to lead the team.”