Fordham golf faltered on the last day of the Cornell Invitational, causing them to tie for ninth out of 15 teams.
Although the Rams were tied for fourth heading into the last day, they were unable to seal the deal in the final round.
The event was held at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Course at Cornell University, a well-regarded layout designed by the eponymous course architect.
The Fordham squad featured five relatively unfamiliar names in its effort to capture a victory.
“We sent some of the other guys up to give them tournament experience,” said senior Drew Dufresne, who is usually one of the starting five for the Rams.
While the starting five at Cornell may have lacked experience and failed to maintain their lofty spot on the leaderboard, they turned in a solid performance. Freshman Matt Schiller and sophomore Oscar Cabanas led the way for Fordham; both tied for 17th place.
Schiller played consistently, opening with a strong 73 and breaking 80 in the last two rounds. Cabanas, on the other hand, started off with rounds of 74 and 73, but faded in the final round, shooting a disappointing 81.
Despite ending the tournament on a sour note, Cabanas was in good spirits and has high hopes for this year’s squad. “I’m excited about the young guys on the team,” he said. “I know there are wins coming soon for us.”
The rest of the Fordham competitors were underclassmen — freshman Joe Trim, who tied for 38th, freshman James Mongey, who finished in 55th and sophomore Hugh LaGrotteria, who wound up in 72nd.
At the end of the day, it was a good effort on a well-designed course that played fairly tough. “The winds over the course of the 54 holes definitely impacted scoring,” noted LaGrotteria. “Greens were fairly receptive but very slick.”
Dartmouth held on to win the event by a single stroke over Delaware and UPenn. After opening up a comfortable lead heading into the final round, the Big Green stumbled a bit, but none of the other squads could sink enough putts to catch them.
The medalist was Blake Carter of Longwood University, whose performance featured an excellent second round of 70. He edged Delaware’s Kieran Purcell, who shot a tournament-best 69 in the final round, by one shot.
This week, the Rams will take their regular squad to Vermont to compete in the Dartmouth Invitational, which will be held on Sept. 27 and 28.
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Sam Belden is a Staff Writer for The Fordham Ram.
