After a slow start through the first two tournaments of the season, the Furman men’s golf team put in a solid showing at last weeks Cardinal Collegiate Invitational hosted by the Louisville Cardinals.
The team finished in sixth place out of the 15 competing schools, with senior Anthony Aloi shooting a three-round 214, good enough for the seventh best individual score. Fellow senior Matt Brown also helped secure the sixth place finish after a final round of 71.
The women’s team traveled to the Rocky Mountains this week to take part in the Golfweek Conference Championship in Wolcott, CO. Perhaps the team was feeling some jet-lag because their early season struggles continued, as they only managed to finish one spot above last place.
Collegiate golf is a very unique competition that is unlike most other college sports, and also unlike most professional golf competitions.
Most people are used to being a spectator at sporting events that feature more traditional team sports, like football and baseball, or golf in a more traditional sense, where a large group of individuals are all competing against each other for the best score.
However, collegiate golf differs from golf in the traditional sense because it is transformed into a team sport instead of focusing on the individual.
Basically, this results in teammates striving for good individual scores, which are combined to get a final team score. This creates a unique atmosphere where a struggling golfer, although part of a team, cannot rely on help from his or her teammates.
Of course, he can hope that the rest of his team does so well as to nullify his poor score, but unlike other sports, there is nothing they can physically do to help him or take him out of the game.
Once a golfer begins a tournament, they are required to compete in all three rounds and cannot be substituted out.
This creates a lot of pressure on the individual golfer, resulting in high stakes golfing.
The men have a week off before they travel to Johnson City, TN for East Tennessee State’s Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate where they hope to continue their solid performances and improve.
The women get a two week rest before traveling to the University of Tennessee, where the young squad will continue to compete and learn as they try to move up the standings.