By Harrison Leone
Sports Assignment Editor
Home-field advantage can often be the deciding factor in a sporting event. Playing in front of raucous, screaming fans can inspire an inferior team to victory, motivating the players to compete at the top of their skill level.
In a sport such as golf, where crowd silence is a strictly-enforced doctrine and cheering during the actual play is taboo, home-field advantage takes on a different character. The Bonnies will hope to utilize their home-field advantage during the approaching Leo Keenan Invitational on Monday and Tuesday at Bartlett Country Club in Olean.
Coach John Powers said while the advantages to playing at home may be different in his sport than in team competitions, there is still a noticeable effect on his golfers’ play.
“It definitely helps to be familiar and comfortable with where you’re playing, especially on a course like Bartlett, which requires a lot of local knowledge and past experience,” Powers said. “I definitely think our guys will have a little bit of an advantage.”
While every collegiate course is distinct, Powers said that Bartlett has historically had a leveling effect on the scores of the participants while also allowing for players to shoot slightly lower-than-average scores.
“Scores are typically a little bit lower than some of the other places that we play,” Powers said. “It’s harder to shoot a real low round at Bartlett than it is at some other courses, but you don’t shoot quite as high either on your bad days. That’s just kind of one of the unique things about the course: it brings everybody together a little bit more in terms of scores than some other places we play.”
The Invitational is named after former St. Bonaventure Golf coach Leo Keenan and celebrates its 25th anniversary this season. The invitational only features schools from the Northeast. Last year, La Salle was the only other Atlantic 10 school at the invite. Powers said that featuring similar schools among the competition may mollify the SBU advantage.
“Most of the teams that come over come every single year, so they’ll have a handful of guys who have seen the course five, six or seven times before,” Powers said. “Still, it’s nice to be on your home course and know just a little bit more than anyone else.”
The Bonnies took home the victory at last season’s invitational, besting second-place finisher Robert Morris by seven strokes, 292-299. The Bonnies had three golfers — Brian McKenna, Josh Stauffer and Scott Brady — tie for first place in that meet, with their fourth golfer, Greg Horvath, coming in tied for 16th. With seniors McKenna and Horvath graduating, Powers hopes the team will be able to replace their lost production.
“Brian and Greg were a huge part of everything we did here last season,” Powers said. “But still, we have most of the guys back from that team. We have guys who are ready to step up and keep the momentum going.”
Powers added that, while repeating last year’s triumph and taking home the victory on their home course, the invitational will also be used as an attempt to solidify the lineups for the remainder of the season.
“We could use a little bit better performance from our fourth score this week, but being on our home course it should definitely help,” Powers said. “It’s so early in the season. We’re trying to figure who our five strongest players are right now, and we’ll have a qualifying round on Friday to see who the starting five is for this event. We still have high expectations for the tournament and we certainly feel like we can get the W.”
