At first glance, finishing fourth in a 15-team tournament might seem pretty good. However, the golf team knows that it could have wrapped up a bid to the NCAA Championships by placing third or better at the Mid-Atlantic Region Classic in Hershey, Pa.
UR shot 321 and 314 to finish with a 635, 17 shots behind Susquehanna College.
“We will have to play very well in our next two tournaments to overcome our loss to Susquehanna at Hershey,” coach Rich Johnson said. “But we are capable of very good golf, so we are optimistic.”
Those two tournaments are the UAA Championships at Brandeis and the prestigious Fred B. Kravetz Invitational in Rochester.
In order to succeed at those tournaments and secure a trip to the NCAA Championships, UR will need to correct the mistakes that have led to two straight disappointing tournaments.
“What was disturbing was we made many of the same mental mistakes we made at Kenyon,” Johnson said. “We worked hard prior to Hershey on establishing a game plan and sticking to it, but sometimes we got away from our plans mid-round.”
Junior Mike Quijano led UR with a 158 to tie for 20th place individually. Junior John Semeniak and sophomore Jason Bronstein each shot 159 and senior Joe Quijano shot a 160.
“I had a poor tournament individually and I think if you ask everyone on our team they would all say that we had a poor tournament as a team,” Semeniak said. “I need to relax and trust my swing. We all have talent and there is no reason to put a lot of pressure on yourself during a tournament round.”
This was the second tournament in a row in which UR’s four scoring golfers shot within three strokes of each other, but that is not necessarily a good thing.
“Although we continue to shoot similar scores, all five players have to pick it up a few notches,” Johnson said. “Our scoring average has climbed from 310.8 in the fall to 315.3 for our two spring tournaments. I would like us to improve two strokes per man in our next two tournaments, which means averaging 307 as a team.”
Despite their struggles so far this spring, everybody on the team still expects to win the next two tournaments.
“In my mind, if you’re not going to a tournament to win it, then why go at all?” Semeniak said. “I don’t want to guarantee anything, but if you ask us all we would say we want two wins and we definitely have the skill level to do that.”
The key for UR will be allowing that skill to come through and deliver two solid rounds of golf.
“We talked about putting less pressure on ourselves. We need to work on staying committed to our game plan,” Johnson said. “If we do, that’s one less decision to be made during competition.”
Jacobs can be reached at bjacobs@campustimes.org.
