If there is one thing the golf team could take away from its 14th place finish at the Adams Cup of Newport, it’s the young talent on its roster that fifth-year coach Brian Quinn said can only improve.
The Owls competed with a roster that included three freshman, three sophomores, and one junior at the Newport Golf Club in Rhode Island on Sept. 19-20. However, Quinn said the team didn’t get off to the type of start that he had hoped for going into the tournament.
“I was very disappointed with the way we started the tournament,” Quinn said. “We struggled a lot early. But we were able to hang in there and played pretty well the last day.”
The Owls’ leading scorer in the tournament, which spanned two days and 54 holes, was freshman Paul Carbone, who placed 51st with a total of 227. Carbone started with 79’s in the first two rounds, and fired a 69 on the next day of competition, which tied for the fourth-best single round score in the tournament.
“My tempo was good, I hit the ball solid in all three rounds, but I need to work on my short game to put up the scores that I know I’m capable of.” Carbone said. “The course is very different than we are used to with the wind being a major factor, and I was a little nervous the first day. Thankfully I was able to shake it and really play well the final round.”
Another bright spot for the Owls was sophomore Steve Burak, whose three-round total of 228 was good for 56th overall. Although he is only a sophomore, Burak is one of the Cherry and White’s more experienced golfers.
Rounding out the scoring for the Owls was junior Devin Bibeau, as well as sophomores Matthew Crescenzo, and Russell Hartung with scores of 230, 239, and 246, respectively.
With any young team leadership comes into question, especially one with no seniors, and only one junior.
“[Hartung], [Crescenzo], [Bibeau] and I really had to grow up quickly and become leaders for the three freshmen,” Burak said. “Devin and I are constantly helping them adjust to college golf, as well as college life off the course. We need to continuously get better to compete at the level coach Quinn and ourselves expect to be competing at.”
Competing with such a young team time is certainly a big factor in developing talent. Although they may not have been where they wanted to be in the Adams Cup, Quinn has no doubt that these young men can compete with anyone.
“It will take time to become as good as we can, and the only way to get where we need to be is through experience. We’ve played a lot of golf in the past five days, which is good for these young kids,” said Quinn. “We have a week off coming up and we are going to work hard to improve our scores and prepare for upcoming tournaments.”
Next up for the Owls is the Mcdonald Cup, which takes place Oct. 1-2 at the Yale Golf Club in New Haven, Conn.
Anthony Bellino can be reached at anthony.bellino@temple.edu.
great job anthony keep it up hope to see u on yankee network in future love and miss u.love grandma and grandpa