The UConn men’s golf team journeyed all the way to Hawaii for last weekend’s Ka’anapali Invitational, playing in an event filled with several marquee college golf programs. UConn performed well, though it didn’t necessarily translate to the standings.
On Saturday, the Huskies had an uneven start to the invitational, ultimately leading to an even par finish in the first round. Sophomore Alex Heard, who returned from injury after missing the past two events, led the way for Connecticut. After starting on the par-3 8th hole, Heard recovered well from two bogeys on the back nine by firing four birdies in his last six holes to card a score of 69, two under par. Seniors Eric Boulger and Ray Dennehy both shot an even-par 71, each taking a while to adjust to the course. On Saturday, a running theme for the Huskies was finding their footing; UConn golfers shot an overall score of plus 7 in their first nine holes while carding a minus 13 on their last six.
Boulger began with a bogey on the ninth hole and continued a difficult stretch with four more bogeys on the back nine before making a great turnaround, shooting five under par through the last eight holes, including a birdie on the 8th, his final hole of the day. Dennehy, meanwhile, fell victim to two double bogeys on hole No.10 and 15, seemingly putting his day underwater. But he bounced back after that and finished with two straight birdies on the fifth and sixth holes.
Bradley Sawka and Connor Goode shot a two over par 73 to round out the UConn team scoring. Goode’s rough start was somewhat surprising, as he finished fourth in Connecticut’s previous event two weeks ago, the Xavier Invitational. Goode, like Boulger, started his round with a bogey and never got very comfortable after that. He would still have escaped with even par if not for a double bogey on the fifth hole to end his day.
After all was said and done in Round 1, the Huskies were 20 shots back of leaders Oklahoma and No. 15 in the standings.
UConn had a far better time on Sunday, as the team shot 273, 11 under par, matching Oklahoma’s tally for the round. All of Connecticut’s golfers whose scores counted towards the total shot below par, including Dennehy, who had the team’s best round of the day. Dennehy began rather inauspiciously with an early bogey on the par-4 10th hole, but soon after ripped off three straight birdies, he also followed up with three more birdies to just one bogey in his last nine holes, ending the round at 67, four under par. Boulger followed closely behind that score, shooting a 68; he fired four birdies while having just one blemish, a bogey on the fifth hole.
Sawka and Heard both contributed scores of minus two, but Goode was left off the counted scores as he once again shot a plus-two 73. He was derailed this time by five bogeys, including three on the front nine.
The final round on Monday dawned with the Huskies at 13th place in the standings, not near the leaders but nowhere near the bottom either. The day soon became a tale of duality, as Sawka and Goode started out with birdies on the par-4 11th hole, while Dennehy carded an unfortunate triple bogey on the 10th, his first hole of the round, a setback he never fully recovered from as he completed his day with a score of 72.
Heard began his round well, firing two consecutive birdies, but from there had a rough run of three bogeys in six holes that culminated in disaster on the par-4 18th – he carded a quadruple bogey, and finished at four over par.
Goode and Sawka followed up their initial birdies with strong play; Goode managed to finish at even par for the day, recovering somewhat from his setbacks in the first and second rounds. However, Sawka was the star of the show on Monday, shooting just two bogeys and blasting an eagle on the hole No. 6 en route to a score of 68, three under par.
At the conclusion of the final round, the Huskies ended up in 15th with 843 strokes, a score of nine under par. As for the rest of the field, Oklahoma maintained the lead they held all three days to finish first in the invitational for the third straight year, shooting an 810 overall, a whopping 42 under par. Kansas finished a distant second, with Colorado coming in third after narrowly edging out Indiana. North Florida, who were in third before Monday’s play began, fell sharply in the standings as they couldn’t keep pace with the leaders.
With the invitational now over, UConn’s fall 2024 season has officially concluded. The team will return in early February for Big East match play, which will be held at Bear Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.