The weather patterns made for some intriguing golf strategies this weekend, forcing the players to adjust their games as heavy rains poured in on Friday.

The Binghamton golf team finished in seventh place at the Rutgers Invitational with a stroke total of 587, 13 strokes behind the victorious Seton Hall Pirates. But the real story of the weekend was the impressive comeback the Bearcats made, starting off poorly to finish respectably. Their excellent team play on Saturday will, no doubt, build their confidence for their next tournament, which begins Friday at St. John’s.

The team began Friday’s round at 7:30 a.m. until play was halted at 10:30 for five hours due to the weather, affecting the rhythms of most players in the field. Many teams finished more than 10 strokes better on Saturday than Friday, including the Bearcats, who improved their score by 19 strokes.

Even disregarding the weather, the Bearcats got off to a very poor start even before the rain delayed play.

“Nobody really played well on Friday, and when there is a big delay like that in the middle of a round, it is extremely tough to salvage your round, especially when you get off to a bad start,” said head coach Nick Lasky.

After play was resumed, the weather patterns continued to hurt the Bearcats on Friday.

“Just the way the timing worked out, many teams were able to play a significant portion of their rounds in clear weather while we were forced to play our entire round in the pouring rain,” Lasky said. “The weather is part of the game of golf, and our players must learn how to adjust to it and do damage control.”

The Bearcats came roaring back on Saturday to make up for their rough start. Senior star Jeff Wolniewicz led the Bearcats with back-to-back rounds of 72, and junior Zach Vinal bounced back with a round of two under 69, following a disappointing round of 75 on Friday. Freshman Patrick Donovan showed some signs of maturing, bouncing back from his sub-par round of 82 to post a 72 in his second round, and J.J. Shearer, who was four over par through his first five holes, managed to settle in and make some birdies, finishing his round at an even par 71.

It is becoming more apparent that the anchors of this team lie in the number-one spot with Wolniewicz and number-five with Patrick Donovan.

“Donovan has really blossomed in the number-five spot and has really earned the respect of his teammates,” Lasky said. “They feel confident knowing that he is in the back of the rotation and will consistently put up good numbers for them.”

“As for Jeff, he is just a solid number-one man on this team, and would probably be a solid number-one man anywhere in the country,” Lasky added.

Despite the setbacks on Friday, Lasky remains optimistic about the caliber of his team heading into the future.

“We definitely showed signs of playing the way that we are capable of playing, and Saturday was one of the strongest performances in Binghamton team history,” Lasky said. “Our younger players are gelling and playing some pretty good golf. They are all playing very well in qualifying rounds because they are fine-tuning their game to meet the demands of college-level golf.”