Monday saw the end of a disappointing fall season for Fordham Golf, as the Rams finished 15th out of 16 teams in the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Championship. The 36-hole event was shortened to 18 holes after a washout on Sunday, and the Rams struggled mightily during the round. Fordham finished with a score of 320, 17 shots clear of last place St. Francis College, and 33 shots behind the champion Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU).
The Rams were paced by sophomore Edoardo Tamburi, who placed T-37 with a 6-over 76. Season-long mainstays junior Dean Cerimido, freshman P.J. O’Rourke and freshman Nicholas Manning all had pedestrian finishes. Sophomore Ryan Davis made his season debut shooting an 82, good enough for a T-74 finish, while sophomore Dante Lancellotti made his return to the lineup, posting an 88. All in all, an average showing for the Rams, who suffered from a lack of depth in scoring as they have all season long.
As for the rest of the tournament, the individual title was decided in a playoff, with Manhattan College’s Preston Shortell and FDU’s Melan Dhaubhadel finishing the 18 holes tied for the lead at one-under-par. They advanced to a playoff, where Shortell came out on top, securing the individual championship.
The fall season was all in all unsuccessful but had some bright spots at the top of the lineup that the Rams will look to roll over into the spring. The lowest average strokes per round belongs to P.J. O’Rourke at 76.8 strokes per round over eight rounds. Following close behind are sophomore Chan Park and Nicholas Manning at 77.6. Their best finish came in the first event of the season, the Ryan Lee Memorial hosted by Central Connecticut State University, where they placed tenth out of 17 squads. Other than that, they were in the bottom three in every event they played. The best round of the semester goes to Manning and the second round 70 he shot at the Quechee Invite at Dartmouth University. Both O’Rourke and Manning placed T-16 at one point during the season, best on the team.
During the fall season, the Rams proved that they could not hang with the best teams in the local area, as they got blown out in many of the tournaments they played. There is much room for improvement between now and late March, when the Rams will ramp it up again. They will need to see more consistency out of their top dogs such as Manning, Ceremido and Park, all of whom posted plenty of rounds in the 70s but had a few scores up around 90 mixed in as well. They will also need better depth scoring. It was a problem all season long, as there was always a player or two who were straggling behind the group, placing at the bottom of the individual scoreboard, and bringing the Rams’ aggregate score way up.
As has been outlined many times, the spring is vital for the Rams if they want to “make their mark in the A-10 and be consistent competitors in all events over the course of the dual season,” as Dean Ceremido said they would way back in August when asked about the upcoming fall season. The winter will need to be a time of improvement for the Rams to be able to compete in the A-10.
