Men’s Golf Competes at SHU Invite

BY ANTHONY SACCONE

Staff Reporter

The men’s golf team hosted their annual SHU Spring Invite on April 14 and 15. The tournament took place at the Great River Golf Club, the Pioneers’ home course located in Milford, Conn.

The team’s roster consists of six members, but the team uses it as motivation.

“Even though there are disadvantages to a small team, I believe that it has brought us closer. Having a solid team dynamic allows us to learn from each other,” said senior Hector Gutierrez. “Sometimes, we don’t notice our mistakes or areas that we can improve on, but there’s always a great chance our teammate does, and that helps us improve collectively as a team.”

The team credits head coach Matthew McGreevy on giving them the tools for success.

“Coach McGreevy has been great at laying out his expectations for us and teaching us the steps it takes to be ready,” said Gutierrez. “He’s helped us stay focused on our goal and is the reason why we practice and give our best effort every day.”

The Pioneers came off a strong showing at the Towson Invitational, where McGreevy liked what the team showed. The team finished the tournament tied for second place.

“We had a very solid tournament, as we were able to improve from day one and put ourselves in a great position to win the event,” said McGreevy.

The SHU Invite included the University of Hartford, Long Island University (LIU), Manhattan College, Iona College, and Hofstra.

Heading into the tournament sophomore Saptak Talwar believed that being the host team there was a bit of added pressure for the team to perform well.

“Yes, there is always the element of pressure any time a team is at home. There are the expectations that we have from ourselves and our teammates,” said Talwar. “But at the end of the day, it’s a sport and we have to realize anything can happen out there. All we can do is go out and play our best game.”

“Having the tournament at home at Great River is quite an advantage to us due to the difficulty of the course,” said senior Alex Manner. “It’s the type of course that you can only get better with repetition, playing and learning where to miss, what holes to attack and which to play safe as well.”

After the first day of the Spring Invite the Pioneers found themselves in first place with 294 points.

Coach McGreevy has been impressed with the way the team has played this spring season.

“The team has performed well throughout the spring. We have improved all throughout the season and are excited to now move on to the Northeast Conference championships,” said McGreevy.

The team is now getting ready for the Northeast Conference (NEC) chamionships.

“The keys we will focus on for the rest of the season heading into our conference championship will be our short game and putting,” said McGreevy. “We need to fuel ourselves up to play golf and go out there and compete.”

The NEC Championships will take place in Florida from April 26 through 28.

“We’ve had a good track record against all the other NEC teams this season, so we are really excited for the conference championships coming up, and we hope to make it to the NCAAs,” said Talwar.

About the author

Leave a Reply