Confident Golf Team Falters On Second Day, Finishes Eighth

The golf team traveled to Wilmington, Delaware this past weekend to compete in the Scotty Duncan Memorial hosted by the University of Delaware. The Red entered the tournament Saturday as the defending champion, enthusiastic about the course and its chances of winning. The team was eager to defend its title, but faltered on the second day of competition and finished the two rounds of play with a total team score of 623, good for a tie for 8th place overall in the 16-team field.[img_assist|nid=32493|title=Like clockwork|desc=Sophomore Matt Jaye is one of only two golfers this year with previous collegiate experience.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
“We just did not play well,” said junior Robert Cronheim, who led the Red with a score of 151, tied for 10th place overall. “We have no excuses. We just did not play good golf. Plain and simple.”
The Red finished the first round with a score of 308, leaving it in good position to go out and compete for a top spot on day two. Instead, their play failed to improve as they finished with a team total of 315 for the second round.
“It just wasn’t a good day,” said sophomore Dan Bosse, who finished with a score of 159. “We’re pretty disappointed. We just couldn’t get anything going. We’re not making any excuses for it, we just didn’t play well.”
“We just have to play better golf than we are right now,” Cronheim said. “It’s disappointing to go to a tournament and not perform up to our abilities. But there are no excuses for poor play. We just need to go out, play better and put the ball in the hole.”
An aspect of the Red that makes them unique is the amount of inexperience it has at the collegiate level. The only two members of the team who have consistently competed in tournaments before this year are Cronheim and sophomore Matt Jaye.
“It starts with Matt (Jaye) and myself,” Cronheim said. “We have the experience; we have to lead the others guys by example and just go out and play better golf.”
Still, the Red refuses to make any excuses for its sub-par play, regardless of its amount of inexperience.
“Everyone on the team has played enough competitive golf,” Bosse said. “We should all have a pretty good grasp of tournament play. We just need to perform.”
Despite its frustrations, the team is going to do what it does every week: take the positives and negatives of the weekend and focus on improving them in practice.
“There were a lot of things I did well and a bunch of things I could do better,” Cronheim said. “I’m just going to work on them in practice this week and hope to go out and play better golf.”