NYU men’s golf finished fourth in the Hudson National Fall Classic, their last tournament of the fall season. Four other teams — Clarkson University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Trinity College and Manhattanville College — competed in the tournament, hosted annually at the Hudson National Golf Club in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.
“Today [Sunday] played a little tough,” CAS junior Matt Gjonaj said after the first day. “But tomorrow I’m expecting the team to go low. We know what the course looks like now, and we’ll have a better idea of how to get around the greens especially.”
The men’s golf team rebounded from their day one score of 321, going on to shoot a 312 (633 two-day total) on Monday. However, they finished short of RPI (620), Trinity (620) and Clarkson (631). Rensselaer beat Trinity in a tiebreaker to win the event.
“There were better conditions today,” head coach Todd Kolean said after seeing the results of day two. “So it was a little easier.”
CAS senior captain Tim Lau and CAS freshman Owen Lin led NYU, both tying for eighth overall with two-day scores of 159. Lin brought in the lowest score for the Violets on Monday, shooting a 74 (+3). Lau shot 80 in the second round on Monday, and Gjonaj finished tied for 18th after shooting 77.
“It was good to see Owen and Matthew rebound after relatively poor rounds yesterday,” Kolean said. “Tim had a rough hole today, but fought back to finish with a respectable score as well.”
Stern junior Kevin Chien, Stern freshmen Arjun Madgavkar, Gallatin sophomore Julius Oppenheimer and Tisch senior Cody Ball, all competed for NYU’s B team and finished 20th, 21st, 23rd and 25th, respectively.
“The team shot better today and we shaved a lot of strokes,” Gjnonaj said. “We had a decent season, I think we all expected to do a little better. [I’m] expecting us to come strong next semester and do better than we did in the fall.”
“Later in the season we’ve gained more consistency and look to have a big spring,” Kolean said. “I think the younger players will be a huge help.”
NYU men’s golf will take to the course again for their first match of the spring season at the Red Tail Country Club for the UAA Championship in Orlando, Florida from March 11 to 12.
A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, Oct. 22 print edition. Sean Billings is a contributing writer. Email him at [email protected].
