By Jimmy Sullivan

Fordham Golf started its spring with a slightly encouraging 14th-place finish at the Coca-Cola Lehigh Valley Invitational last weekend. However, the Rams were unable to build off that progress this week at the Wildcat Invitational, hosted by Villanova University.

Paul Dillon’s team finished 19th out of the 20 teams in Malvern, Pennsylvania on Monday and Tuesday, and the team’s second-round performance was particularly discouraging. After shooting 11-over as a team on Monday, Fordham cleared 300 on Tuesday to finish at 28-over and in second-to-last place. Drexel University ran away with the tournament, finishing nine strokes ahead of second-place Akron University at -17.

The Rams got a good performance out of sophomore Anthony Wells, who bounced back nicely from last weekend’s rounds of 83 and 81. Wells shot a three-over 145 over the two rounds, and started his tournament with an even-par round of 71; that finish had him tied at 33rd on the individual leaderboard. Senior Tommy Hayes also had a solid tournament, and after struggling with a 76 in round one, he shot a one-over 72 on Tuesday.
But aside from Hayes and Wells, there wasn’t much good news for the Rams in the tournament.

Junior Tomas Nieves, after setting a career-low two-round score of 148, shot a nine-over 151 for the Wildcat Invitational. Nieves shot a 77 on Tuesday after firing a 74 on Monday. The other two team competitors for Fordham, senior Josh Madarang and sophomore Dean Cerimido, found themselves near the bottom of the individual leaderboard. Madarang was +12 on his tournament, with a 76 and a 78. Cerimido fared even worse; after starting his tournament with a 74, he shot a 10-over 81 in the second and final round.

By the end of Tuesday, Fordham finished one stroke behind St. Bonaventure University for 18th place and 31 strokes ahead of Wagner College, who finished in a distant last place at 59-over.

Fordham has two more tournaments before the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship in the last weekend of April. The Yale Spring Invitational will take place on Saturday, and it will force Fordham to play the entire course twice in one day. Then, it’s off to the Rhode Island Invitational next Monday and Tuesday to close out the regular season.

The Rams need to figure it out in time for those tournaments. The time in the spring season is ticking.