By Jack McLoone

Three tournaments in and Fordham Golf has yet to place in the upper half of a tournament field. This weekend’s Quechee Invite, hosted by Dartmouth, resulted in an 11th place finish for the Rams.

That being said, there have been small steps forward for the Rams. The team is rather young, but senior Josh Madarang thinks they’ve begun to acclimate themselves.

“I have seen the younger guys start to understand what it takes to play well in college,” said Madarang. “Now they just have to use that knowledge to get better and shoot lower.”

Even more important, the Rams bounced back from a tough opening round in Vermont with better second rounds for all but one of their five team scoring golfers.

Once again it was Madarang leading the way for the Rams. He followed an opening-round 76 with a 75 for a 151, which placed him in a tie for 24th. Right behind him was sophomore Mithran Denbow, who followed a 77 with a 75 for a 152 and a tie for 30th.

Fellow sophomore Anthony Wells had the biggest round-over-round improvement of the day for the Rams. He shot an 81 on Saturday, one of just 10 of the 120 scoring golfers to shoot 80 or above in the first round. However, he had the best second round of all the Rams, shooting a 73 to salvage a 154 and tie for 42nd. Only 15 golfers shot better than a 73 in round two.

Senior Thomas Hayes continued the trend, opening with an 80 and following it up with a 77 for a two-round 157 and a tie for 54th.

The only Ram who bucked this trend was freshman Aidan Denning, who followed an opening-round 77 with an 89, the worst single round of any golfer at the tournament. It gave him a 166 and a tie for 70th.

Sophomore Dean Cerimido competed as an individual (his score did not count in Fordham’s team scoring) and he, too, followed the Rams’ pattern. He opened with an 87 but bounced back with an 81. The deficit was too much to make up, however, as his 168 placed him in a tie for 72nd, last place.

“I think the guys really understand how important it is to not make big numbers, so if we focus on that, we’ll be fine,” said Madarang.

Bucknell University won the event on the back of a strong Day 2, as they were in fifth with a team score of 302 after Saturday. However, Chris Tanabe and Connor O’Brien had identical tournaments, shooting opening-round 71s and second round 69s to finish at 140 and in a tie for first.

The Rams’ next event is the MacDonald Invitational, hosted by Yale in New Haven, Conn., on Saturday and Sunday. This tournament will be different from the other three the Rams have participated in, as it will be a total of 54 holes, with 36 played on Day 1. The Hartford Hawks Invitational was also supposed to be 54 holes, but a combination of it getting too dark on Day 1 and bad weather on Day 2 shortened it to the usual 36 holes.

While the Rams may have to pay a little more attention to their fitness so they do not tire too much over the 36-hole day, their overall strategy will not change. Madarang hopes this inexperienced Rams squad can continue to take steps forward this weekend.

“I think guys have figured out some of their mistakes made in the first two events,” said Madarang. “Hopefully we can build off that and put it all together during the next event.”