Three members of the men's golf team traveled to Portsmouth, R.I. to compete in the University of Rhode Island Northeast Invitational Tournament at the Green Valley Country Club this past weekend.
While other teams competed for the team title, the Big Green golfers competed individually. Shunsuke Aonuma '10 finished as the low scorer for Dartmouth with a two-day total of 76-83-159, earning a tie for 37th place.
"This was a 'fun tournament' for us," Aonuma said. "The Ivy League Championship was last week, which is the most important tournament of the year. This one is more laid back. Only three of us went, so we didn't even have a full team. It was just a chance for us to play some golf."
Aonuma's score was 17 strokes over par on the par-72 course, and his first-day 76 was the only Big Green score in the 70s over the weekend.
"I played alright the first round, but hacked it in the second," Aonuma said. "I was just happy that I beat Ryan Choi '11 both rounds."
Choi tied for 53rd with a score of 81-87-168, 26 strokes over par, followed by Zack NaPier '10 who scored a disappointing 90-87-177, which put him in 58th place in the 59-man field.
For the tournament, there were only four scores below par and one even par.
The winner of the tournament, Bryant University's Jason Thresher, finished at even par with a score of 73-69-142.
"The greens were hard to read, and it was difficult to judge speed," Aonuma said. "We all had a lot of three-putts, which is just throwing away strokes. The course was real nice, although it definitely was not the hardest course we played."
Over the course of the weekened, the conditions were fairly favorable.
"The first round [in the morning] was definitely easier than the second," Aonuma said. "It was much windier in the afternoon, which made things harder."
On the team side of the competition, Bryant University took first place with a team score of 295-295-590.
Bryant University dueled for the honor with first-round leader Sacred Heart University, which scored 293-300-593, 25 strokes over par, and finished second in the tournament.
Central Connecticut University and Quinnipiac University tied for third place for the tournament, finishing at 40 strokes over par, 18 and 15 strokes behind the top two teams.
Following the conclusion of the Ivy season, all of Dartmouth's golfers will look to improve in order to gain a consistent spot among the top five competitiors on the Big Green's roster.
The top five golfers will travel and compete in all the major competitions, and the top four scores are counted in the team total.
