The UConn men’s golf team, looking to continue their success this season, put in a respectable outing at the Elon Phoenix Invitational and finished seventh out of 18 competing teams. Playing at Alamance Country Club in Burlington, NC on Monday and Tuesday, Connecticut fell behind the leaders early but stormed back in the third round to move up several spots in the standings.
In the first round on Monday, UConn put up an overall score of 294, which was 13 strokes behind the leading UNC-Greensboro squad. For Connecticut, junior Connor Goode had the best results, shooting a 71 to make even par for the round. Goode had two birdies, including one on the par-5 12th hole, a 513-yard behemoth which is the longest on the course. Sophomore Bradley Sawka also put in a strong showing, making four birdies and finishing with a score of 73, just two over par. Sawka would have done even better had it not been for three straight bogeys on the 16th, 17th, and 18th holes. Rounding out the scores, Ray Dennehy and Caden Blanchette both shot a 74, four over par; they were largely undone by double bogeys on the par-four third hole.
The second round for UConn, which was played right after the first, didn’t yield much overall improvement with a score of 293, putting them 19 over par at the end of the day through both rounds. Goode, Sawka, and senior Vikram Konanki all shot a 73, with Dennehy coming just behind with a 74. Goode made birdie on the 18th hole, improving on his first result by two strokes, but also fell victim to a double bogey on the par-3 14, which he had previously parred. Sawka, Konanki and Dennehy all shot three birdies apiece, but Sawka and Konanki both double bogeyed the 3rd hole, and Dennehy scored a 7 on the 12th hole.
Connecticut began to turn things around on the second day of play. Dennehy started out with a bang, shooting four under par through five holes and accounting for a rapid rise in the standings to place UConn as high as No. 10. Goode and Sawka added birdies of their own in the early going. From there, Connecticut slipped back to 14th after a few rough holes, but they kept pushing and eventually ascended to the No. 7 spot. Dennehy finished with a six under 65, third best among all golfers for the round behind Nathan O’Neal of East Carolina and Longwood’s Justin LaRue. Goode continued his strong run of form by carding a 67, putting him four under par for the round and two under in total. As a result, Goode tied for 16th in the individual standings. Dennehy, aided by his stellar third round, came in tied for 21st at one over par overall. As a whole, UConn put up a score of 277 for the final round and 864 in total.
Around the greens, UNC-Greensboro finished with a score of 833, the best out of all competing teams and seven strokes ahead of the runner-up East Carolina. Host Elon University settled in at 3rd in the standings. Longwood took 4th place behind the efforts of LaRue, who finished as the invitational’s No. 1 individual golfer and ended up 12 under par through all three rounds. Middle Tennessee State and Long Island took 5th and 6th, respectively, the latter finishing just three strokes ahead of Connecticut. On the other end of the standings, Presbyterian had the unfortunate distinction of being the only team to crack the score of 900, which put them in last place at 49 over par.
Next, UConn will play at the Xavier Invitational in Cincinnati, OH, from Oct. 21-22. The invitational will be conducted at Maketawah Country Club, which is located right in the heart of Cincinnati.