The Rhode Island men’s golf team finished in third place at the Rutherford Intercollegiate, after posting the lowest team score of the day on Sunday, April 19. The Rams shot six-under for the final round, outperforming all other teams and climbing four spots in the standings for their best finish ever at this event.
This result is significant as it demonstrates the team’s ability to perform under challenging conditions, with early tee times and temperatures in the low 30s. Head coach Gregg Burke said, “I am not a big fan of dramatic comebacks because they are necessarily preceded by bad play, but to shoot six-under and beat Penn State by five and UConn by 15, especially since we had to tee off when the temperature was in the thirties, was impressive.”
Sophomore Tyler Bruneau finished tied for third place individually after carding five birdies and going three-under over his final eight holes. Junior Josiah Tong also made a notable jump on Sunday, moving up 28 spots into tenth place on the individual leaderboard with a three-under par performance. Aidan O’Donovan (tied-28th) and Tony Liu (tied-34th) contributed scoring rounds for Rhode Island; Liu also went three-under during Sunday’s round.
Burke said of his players’ performances: “Tyler continued to show he is our best golfer right now. And once again, we used Josiah’s and Aidan’s score all three rounds, with a special nod to JT’s three-red final round.” He added about Liu’s improvement: “I am cautiously optimistic that the talks and time with Tony hit home. His three-under final round with Coach Brandon Gillis walking every hole with him really set a tone.”
Looking ahead, Rhode Island will compete in the Atlantic 10 Championship at Grand Cypress Links Course in Orlando starting Monday, April 27. Burke said about next steps: “We’ll bring the same five to A-10s this week with the hope that today’s showing and a solid A-10 gets us in the National Golf Invitational if we don’t win the conference championship.”
