A pair of freshmen played a key role in pushing the golf team to a fourth place finish at the 18-team Mount Saint Mary’s Invitational in Littlestown, Pa. over the weekend.
The team scored an 892 (303-290-299) in the three-round tournament to finish 28 strokes over par, just one shot removed from third-place Bryant University, which posted a plus-27 score. Longwood University won the invitational with a one-under par score.
For the Owls, Andrew Mason shot a 68 Friday, a team-record 18-hole low by a freshman. Fellow freshman Sasha Bozic matched Mason with a final round 68 Saturday to keep the Owls close to the top of the leader board.
Bozic finished in a tie for ninth overall with a three-day total of 217, while Mason placed 18th with an individual score of 224.
Junior captain Paul Amess, who was named last week’s Atlantic Ten Conference Golfer of the Week, finished in a tie for 30th, going 78-72-78 in three rounds.
Amess attributes the collective success of the team to first-year coach Brian Quinn. The Owls have finished in the top 10 of four of their last five tournaments.
“Brian Quinn has just kind of revamped everyone’s game, including myself,” Amess said. “He equips everyone with the necessary golfing tools, whether it be the actual physical aspect of the swing’s mechanics, to actually learning how to score well, from course management to decisions off the tee, playing the percentage shot and stuff.”
Quinn, the current director of instruction of the BQ Golf Academy in Conshohocken, is a veteran of the PGA Tour. He went from a distinguished four-year playing career at Temple (1987-90) to winning 17 professional tournaments including the 2003 Massachusetts Open Championship.
“What we go through on the golf course, he has experienced it all, so in every [aspect] of the game he can help everyone on this team,” Bozic said.
The Owls hit the road again next weekend to compete in the two-day Cavalier Classic in Charlottesville, Va., against some of the top collegiate golf programs in the country.
Anthony Stipa can be reached at anthony.stipa@temple.edu.
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