NYU’s men’s golf team concluded the second day of the UAA Championships on par with last year’s fourth-place standing.
Carnegie Mellon University hosted NYU’s first conference tournament of the spring season at Red Tail Golf Course in Sorrento, Fla., from March 9 to March 10. In addition to the host team, the men’s golf team faced top competitors University of Rochester, last year’s UAA champion, and Emory University.
Head coach Todd Kolean said he was happy with the team’s participation.
“It’s one of the toughest conferences in [the] nation,” Kolean said. “But we feel good going into our spring season.”
This year, the men’s golf team sought to redeem its 2013 UAA last-place standing of 632 (+56).
But by the end of day one, NYU trailed behind the other three universities with a collective score of 308.
CAS junior Matthew Gjonaj, who was tied for fifth place on Sunday, scored two strokes over par 74, the best for the team during the first day.
“I was still pretty rusty seeing that that was the first time we got on the course in months, but the swing felt good,” Gjonaj said. “I’m expecting us to be in contention in a few tournaments coming up.”
CAS freshman Owen Lin, Stern senior and co-captain Kyle Demshki, CAS senior Timothy Lau and SCPS senior Dillon Emry shot 75, 76, 83 and 88, respectively. Rookie Lin tied for eighth place while Demshki and Lau tied for 12th and 23rd, respectively.
All five players shot in the 70s on the second day. However, the resulting score only improved to 307, and NYU fell short of the other teams.
Lau rebounded with the highest score for NYU on Monday with 74, ranking 20th out of 28 overall in the tournament.
Emory earned first place with a combined score of 582. Rochester came in second with 591, followed by Carnegie Mellon with 595.
By the end, Gjonaj ranked 10th with an overall score of 151 (+7), Lin ranked 12th with 152 (+8), Demshki ranked 17th with 155 (+11) and Emry ranked 25th with 167 (+23). The team totaled 615 (+56). Kolean said the team put forth a good effort.
“We couldn’t play it safe,” Kolean said. “We played well. We just got beat.”
A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, March 11 print edition. Kathryn Jones is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].
