By Sam Belden
After an encouraging fall season, the Fordham golf team will return to action this spring. Head coach Paul Dillon’s squad will play a six-tournament slate, culminating with the Atlantic 10 Championship in Orlando, Florida.
“For the spring events, I think our goal is to get a win,” said sophomore Joseph Trim. “Our first event is right after spring break, so I believe if we maximize our time to get ready and come back firing on all cylinders, we can pick one up quick.”
Last spring, three of the team’s top contributors graduated, resulting in what could have been significant holes in the roster. Instead, the younger contingent had no trouble picking up the slack, reeling off a trio of top six finishes in five events, including a tie for fourth at the Ryan Lee Memorial Tournament in September. Still, the team is hungry for more.
“Compared to the past couple seasons, this fall season was a success, but we are a competitive group of guys,” said Trim. “I think we all believe it was fairly lackluster.”
Over the past few months, the Rams have been preparing for what lies ahead. Thanks to the relatively mild winter weather, the team has been able to hit some balls on the range to remain sharp.
“One of our courses recently opened back up, so we got out there,” said Trim. “It will be nice to go down for spring break in better form than last year.”
The team still has some time to cram in additional practice before the season gets underway. The Rams’ first event, the Wildcat Invitational, starts on March 28, and three more standard events will follow. Fordham will get a final tune-up at the Til Duty is Done Collegiate Invitational and head down to Florida for A-10s the following week.
Trim and fellow sophomore Matt Schiller will likely lead the way for the Rams this season. The former notched a pair of top 25 finishes last fall, while the latter had some good results of his own, including a phenomenal fourth-place finish at the Ryan Lee Memorial Tournament.
Juniors Oscar Cabanas and Fernando Morett, sophomore James Mongey and freshman Tommy Hayes also got to play plenty of rounds last fall.
The team’s goal is to perform well against the rest of the conference. “Ultimately for A-10, I think our goal is to finish in the top half,” said Trim. “We were voted to finish dead last, but our rankings have us in the middle of the conference. If we can play well, we might be able to break into the top six.”
The roster is a young one, but it has plenty of room to grow. Given its solid results last fall, that could be a scary prospect for the opposition. With luck, the Rams could arrive at A-10s as a team to watch.