Battling inclement weather, the Bonnies wrapped up their fall season with a 12th-place finish at the Dayton Flyer Invitational.
The Bonnies struggled with inconsistent play on the first day, ending their first round in eighth place with a score of 303. During the first round, junior Josh Stauffer and freshman
Corey Long led the way for the Bonnies, each shooting a five-over-par 77.
“We got off to a slow start in the first round,” Coach Erik Hoops said. “The guys fought back in the middle holes, but then we had some holes get away from us late in the round.”
As the second day progressed, the Bonnies inconsistency caught up with them, falling four more spots in the standings. While not pleased with the result, Hoops saw several positive aspects to an otherwise disappointing outing.
“It was a quiet ride home, but we’ve put Dayton behind us, and now it’s time to come up with an offseason plan,” Hoops said. “We had a lot better fall than we did in years past; there’s definite improvement.”
Stauffer echoed his coach’s sentiments about the invitational.
“We didn’t play as well as we needed to,” Stauffer said. “We were too inconsistent.”
With the fall season ending and the offseason beginning, the golfers will shift their focus to improving for the spring season.
“We’ve got some work to do in the offseason,” junior Darren Simons said. “I need to work on hitting my drives straighter, and we can all use some more work on our putting.”
“You can always be better at putting, and guys talk about not putting as well as they need to,” Stauffer said.
To have a successful spring campaign, consistency will be vital, according to Hoops.
“When we look back, guys see times where they could have played more aggressively and times where they needed to be more conservative,” Hoops said.
The freshman on the team will also have time to work on their games, which Simons says is encouraging.
“Our freshman played well in the fall, and you can’t expect too much from them,” Simons said. “College golf is different than high school golf.”
The offseason will provide the Bonnies with an opportunity to make some adjustments to their games before starting again this spring.
“We haven’t had to count scores over 80, and our scores have improved,” Hoops said. “We left Dayton with a sour taste in our mouths, but we played well overall this fall, even when we didn’t have our best days.”
For Simons and Stauffer, the spring season will be focused on one thing: winning.
“One of our goals is to win an Atlantic 10 championship, but we also just want to win at least one tournament in the spring,” Simons said.
Stauffer wants the team to win as well, but also knows that he can contend for the Atlantic 10 title as an individual.
“I have the experience up at the top, and sometime soon, I want to win a tournament,” Stauffer said. “The Atlantic 10 would be a nice one to win.”
After winter break, the Bonnies will resume practice as they prepare for their first invitational of the spring season. They will tee-off again in February.
