The University of Richmond men’s golf team struggled against top teams No. 1 University of Texas and No. 5 Oklahoma State University at the Haskins Award Invitational April 5 and 6, tying for 11 out of 15.
Being invited to the invitational was no small feat for Richmond. Sharing the course with seven top-40 teams exposed the Spiders to some well-known faces in college golf.
“It was cool to see these big names that you recognized from social media and it was almost like, seeing them as celebrities, but at the same time, the more and more we saw them, they just ended up looking like any other guy out there,” first-year Carson Baez said after the tournament. “It kind of just made us realize that we're just all college students out here just playing a sport that we love.”
This tournament proved to be the toughest yet, pushing the Spiders to the max on the course. The Forest Hills Golf Club has 7,140 yards of rolling hills and punishing greens that were renovated less than a year ago, making the ground firm and causing uncontrollable putts.
“Even wedges that you're used to just landing pin high and spinning back, you had to land very short and if it was a front pin, you just had to accept the fact that the ball would land short and roll to like 20 or 30 feet,” Baez said after the tournament.
Baez led Richmond in the first day with a 3-over-par that put him in a tie for 35th place. The front nine was rocky in round two, with Baez hitting four bogeys and a birdie for a 4-over-par. He pulled it together on the back, picking up three birdies and almost hitting even par.
The rest of the team was just slightly behind as sophomore Quin Polin and sophomore Jack LaPiana were 4-over-par and senior Cole Ekert trailed with 5-over-par. After the team picked up four double bogeys in round one, they cleaned up and shot nothing more than a bogey in round two. With one more round left, the Spiders took a night of rest before continuing the next morning.
“If you get in the wrong position it's very difficult to save a par,” Head Coach Adam Decker said in a press release after the second round. “Tomorrow our goal is to keep the ball in the proper position on the approach shots.”
Ekert continued to improve each round, jumping up the ranks from 62nd to 37th. He managed a 2-under-par 70 in round 3 and took the lead amongst Richmond.
“Cole shot two under and carded a red number, which was big for us and brought his score back,” Baez said.
Polin was the only other Spider to rise in rank on the last day, moving up one place. LaPiana, Baez and senior Patrick Isztwan took hits on the board, dropping in rank. LaPiana and Baez maintained similar scores to the previous day, tie breaks and other players' low scores moved them down the line.
The tournament was not fruitful for Isztwan as he landed himself in the third lowest slot with a 17-over-par. In the final round, he recorded over-par scores for nine of the 18 holes.
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The difficult course put the Spiders in 11th, two shots behind Augusta College. There was an obvious score gap between 10th and ninth place as East Tennessee State University was only 1-over-par.
Only one tournament sits in between Richmond and the Atlantic 10 Championships. The Spiders will be busy as they face back-to-back weekend events. Finishing up the regular season, the Spiders will travel down to Chapel Hill, N.C., to play in the Tar Heel Intercollegiate April 12 and 13.
Contact sports editor Abigail Finney at abigail.finney@richmond.edu.
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