It's supposed to be the season for growth and rebirth, but for the AU Men's Golf team, spring has been nothing but a series of disappointments. Competing in their fourth tournament in as many weeks, the Eagles finished seventh at the Lafayette Collegiate Golf Invitational in Center Valley, Pa.
Coming into Saturday's final round, the Eagles found themselves in second position, one stroke behind leader SUNY-Binghamton. Junior Chris Schieffer tied for the low round on Friday, carding a 72, and with a team score of 297 the Eagles looked to be in prime position to strike. That's when the wheels fell off.
"Obviously the first day went much better than the second," Schieffer said. "On Saturday it just didn't come together at all."
Schieffer carded 80 on the second day to finish with 152, but the real story of the day was junior Phil Kief. Kief was disqualified for playing with a broken club, which is a rules violation. This forced freshman Todd Shagin's score to count. Shagin carded an 82 on Saturday giving the Eagles a combined team score of 316. Afterward, Kief expressed disappointment with the outcome.
"It's really too bad I didn't play," Kief said. "I felt really good out there until the putter incident." Kief added that a better knowledge of the rulebook would have helped while playing.
The Eagles finished the tournament with a combined score of 613, 37 shots above par and 27 shots off the lead. Senior Seth Kaplan finished with the highest score in the individual competition, carding a 150 on his way to 12th place overall. The tournament was won by SUNY-Binghamton with a combined score of 586. Individual honors went to Binghamton's Keith Hendrickson who finished with a 142, two shots below par.
The Eagles play in this weekend's Bullock Collegiate Classic, a warmup before the Patriot League Championships April 24 and 25.
