While Mike Weir was shocking the golf world at Augusta National last weekend, the Boston University men’s golf team was dreaming of scoring its own upset at Providence, R.I.’s Triggs Memorial Golf Course in the Division I New England Championship.
Though the Terriers were unable to do the impossible, finishing 18th in a 19-team field, the results were much more encouraging than last week’s performance at the Yale Spring Open.
‘It’s the best we’ve ever done at this tournament,’ said head coach Gary Skrinar, who only a week ago cited his team’s performance at The Course at Yale as its ‘worst ever.’
The Terriers shot 330 on Saturday, and added a 329 on Sunday for a two-day total of 659 (+83). It was the second consecutive year BU finished 18th, though this year’s performance was 28 strokes better. The Terriers were again led by senior captain Rob Klare, whose score of 76-81-157 (+13) earned him 41st place.
The University of Rhode Island took home its fourth-straight New England Championship with a two-day score of 592 (+16), just ahead of Binghamton University’s 596 (+20). Fairfield University’s Justin Vanelli was crowned the individual champion with a three-under-par 141.
At the end of the first day of play, the Terriers found themselves within ten strokes of four other teams, but were unable to move any closer on the second day as four of the five BU competitors posted higher scores.
‘We suffer from the same thing we suffer from every year: a lack of depth,’ Skrinar said about his team’s performance.
Standing out on the second day was senior Takumi Okubo who posted a 76 (+4), besting his first round score by 12 strokes on the par-72 course. For Skrinar, both Okubo’s and the team’s improvement follow a trend that he has seen over the years.
‘As the weather gets nicer, we get better,’ he said.
In order to continue to get better, Skrinar doesn’t believe his team has a particular area that needs improvement, but he thinks that his players just need to play more.
‘Klare, Okubo [and freshman Remy] Sloan, are capable of shooting in the mid to high 70s, they’re just not showing it this spring,’ he said.
And as the Terriers head into their final two tournaments, Klare and Okubo, two seniors whose careers at BU are winding down, will need to play well if the Terriers hope to have any success.
‘They’ve only got three more rounds of golf left,’ Skrinar said of his seniors.