Golf Finishes 14th at Hartford Invite

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Fordham Golf’s two top finishers tied for 70th at the Hartford Hawks Invite. (Courtesy of Fordham Athletics)

Chris Hennessy, Contributing Writer

The Fordham golf team traveled up to Bull’s Bridge Golf Club in South Kent, Conn. for their second tournament of the season, placing 14th out of 16 teams in the 54-hole event.  The Rams were led by Anthony Wells and Chan Park, who posted matching scores of 234 over the three rounds, with Park posting the low round of the event for the Rams, an even par-72 during the first round on Monday.  This was another step for the Rams towards improving their young players, like the freshman Park, and their results from last year. In the 2018 season, the Rams placed 17th out of 20 at Bull’s Bridge, so they showed no improvement this week, still third from last in the tournament.

The University of Central Florida won the tournament with an 840, 16 shots above second place Texas Christian, and 109 shots better than the Rams. The lowest individual score belongs to Wenliang Xie of Seton Hall, who posted a 10-under par 206, with all three rounds coming under par.

Chan Park has become an important player for the Rams early in his career at Rose Hill, as he placed T-1 amongst the Rams this week and came two shots short of first for Fordham last week.  Park will have to continue to play well in order for Fordham to place well this season and in the future. Park’s even par-72 in the early session on Monday provides hope for Coach Paul Dillon for the future.  Park’s placements are promising especially because of his young age. He has only played in these two events in his college career and is already impressive. As he becomes more comfortable with the college game and the pressure that goes along with it, he will only score better, leading to better finishes for the Rams.  I predict he will become the number one player on the Rams within this season, if he is not already.

The next event for the Rams is this Saturday and Sunday in Quechee, Vt. at the Quechee Invite hosted by Dartmouth at the Quechee Golf Club.  Last year, Fordham placed 11th out of 12 teams in Quechee, as they continue their quest to improve on their lackluster results from the 2018 campaign.

Fordham is currently sitting two events into their six-event fall schedule, with two very different results to write home about.  Their first one, a top 10 finish at the Ryan Lee Memorial last week that provided a glimmer of hope for the season with impressive finishes from their new arrivals. This week not so much, with six rounds over 80 posted by the Rams.  Also, their rounds posted were higher than those posted last week at the Ryan Lee. They need to continue to improve if they want to have a good season in 2019. Quechee will be an important tournament for the fall season for them to get their momentum back towards the winning ways.