Barone looking to ‘ending the season right’ after team’s third spring event

Temple ended its three-day competition at the Furman Intercollegiate on Sunday and has now hit the halfway point of its spring season.

Much like in its first two spring tournaments, Temple finished much closer to last place than first on the team leaderboard in Greenville, South Carolina. The Owls shot a cumulative score of 894 in the three-round event. They shot 30 strokes over par and placed 19th in the 21-team field.

Sophomore Trey Wren shot three under par on the final day to help Temple shoot an even par. Wren shot an even par for the tournament to finish in a tie for 27th on the individual leaderboard. Redshirt sophomore John Barone finished in a tie for 79th at eight strokes over par. Redshirt freshman Erik Reisner, junior Mark Farley and freshman Marty McGuckin rounded out the field for the Owls. Reisner shot 10 over par, Farley scored 13 over and McGuckin shot 20 over to tie for 119th.

After two rounds, Temple was last on the team leaderboard. Wren and Barone carded rounds of three and four strokes under par respectively on the final day. Wren shot three over par in the first round and was not pleased with how the weekend unfolded.

“The first two rounds were just bad golf,” Wren said of both his individual play and the team’s play. “We just didn’t play very well at all. We had a couple guys who were not super confident coming in.”

“There’s really no excuses,” Barone said. “I think we just have to work harder as a team and help each other out. We have to build off of our good performances.”

Temple only has one senior and two juniors on its roster, but Wren said he has played enough tournaments that inexperience shouldn’t be a problem. Wren also said the team has to become more consistent and have more rounds like it did Sunday.

“We have to make it a complete priority to be playing good golf all the time,” Wren said. “We are young but in seven rounds we’ll all be older so we’re really not that young anymore.”

Temple has 13 days before its next event, which is the Princeton Intercollegiate. On April 14-15 the Owls head south again to participate in the Wolfpack Spring Open before wrapping up the season in the American Athletic Conference Tournament from April 23-26.

Wren and Barone said the team wants to finish in the top three at the Princeton Intercollegiate.

“I’m looking forward to ending the season right,” Barone said.

Greg Frank can be reached at greg.frank@temple.edu or on Twitter @g_frank6. Follow The Temple News at @TheTempleNews and @TTN_Sports.