Golf Earns Top-Ten Finish at Ryan Lee Memorial

Fordham+Golf+showed+encouraging+signs+at+this+weeks+Ryan+Lee+Memorial.+%28Courtesy+of+Fordham+Athletics%29

Fordham Golf showed encouraging signs at this week’s Ryan Lee Memorial. (Courtesy of Fordham Athletics)

Fordham Golf opened its fall season at the Ryan Lee Memorial at Hop Meadow Country Club in Simsbury, Connecticut, hosted by Central Connecticut State. The Rams placed 10th out of 17 teams in the tournament, finishing at 30 over par combined for the two days, 37 shots behind first-place Harvard. Nicholas Manning led the way scoring-wise for the Rams, posting a 76-74 for a tournament total of 150, which was good enough for T-32 on the weekend. 

After the first round on Saturday, the Rams were in 11th place, but were able to leapfrog Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute and enter the top 10. The Rams struggled on the front nine for the two days, posting a total of 23-over par on the front side. These slow starts did not help the Rams put together a good tournament.  Their back-nine gross score of seven-over par was good enough to tie for third in back-nine scoring for the weekend. Their ability to start out strong and keep the momentum up throughout the matches will need to be improved, as their finishing holes were good enough for a topflight finish.   

For the Rams, it was about improving on last year, especially with their first two tournaments being the same from last year to this one. They accomplished that, as last year they placed 12th out of 13 in the Lee Memorial. Key returner and junior  Anthony Wells came in just three shots behind Manning and continued to show why he was the most valuable player to the team. The junior from Plantation, Fla. was the lowest-scoring player to return for this season. As the team got significantly younger this summer, he takes on a leadership role for the next two years.   

The play of young new additions Manning, Edoardo Tamburi (74-77-151) and Chan Park (79-73-152) provide promise for the season. They may not dominate every tournament they play in, but these youngsters will develop into strong players for the Rams in the future as they look to rebuild the program into an A-10 contender.   

The low score for the tournament came from the individual champion Adam Xiao of Harvard with a 68 in round one. For the Rams, it was Park’s Sunday 73 that set the scoring bar.   

The next tournament in which the Rams play is the two-day Hartford Hawks Invite, on Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 16 and 17 at Bulls Bridge Golf Club in South Kent, Conn. Next week’s host placed eighth, seven shots ahead of Fordham. Last year at Bulls Bridge, the Rams placed 17th out of 20, another result they look to improve on in the early going in 2019.  Their top golfer at Hartford last year was Josh Madarang, while lone returner Anthony Wells was second with a 156, good enough for T80 in the tournament.