The Binghamton golf team continued its strong play last weekend at the St. John’s McLaughlin Invitational. The Bearcats placed fourth, finishing 16 strokes behind first place finisher Akron and only two strokes back of third place Marquette in the tournament, held in Bethpage, Long Island. St. John’s finished second.

Binghamton was led by impressive performances from junior Zach Vinal and sophomore J.J. Shearer. Vinal fired rounds 71, one over par, 68, two under par, and 69, on under par, to lead the Bearcats; he finished in fifth place out of 84 golfers at two under par overall for the weekend.

Shearer shot a first round 67, leading the tournament after the first day. He followed that with rounds of 69 and 73 to finish second among the Bearcats and alone in sixth place individually. Senior Jeff Wolniewicz fired a first round 69 and finished in a tie for 20th overall. Senior Aaron Ungvarsky and freshman Patrick Donovan finished with total scores of 219 and 233, respectively.

Coach Lasky remains very enthusiastic and optimistic about Vinal and Shearer and their abilities to consistently put up good scores for the team.

“Zach Vinal’s game has matured so much over the early part of the season, implementing more high percentage shots into his game and decreasing the number of high risk shots,” Lasky said. “He is still very upset when his birdie putts do not fall in and has to settle for pars, but the important thing is that he still feels that par is always a very good score on these challenging golf courses. He has played a major role in carrying our team to the next level.”

Shearer was also pleased with his own performance.

“I played pretty solidly,” Shearer said. “I just went out there and played my game, kept the ball in play and didn’t force anything or make stupid decisions to hamper my score. And I was also capitalizing on many birdie chances that I had throughout the tournament, and didn’t let them slip away from me because opportunities were so precious and rare this weekend.”

While the Bearcats’ fourth place finish was impressive, Patrick Donovan did not have a very positive tournament. The rookie had some tough breaks in his first round of 74, including a double bogey on a hole where his ball went in the deep rough.

“It was just very unfortunate. If there was anybody out there watching or spotting his shot, the ball would never have gotten lost because the shot certainly was not hit that poorly,” Lasky said. “The rough was up a little bit, and the ball just sank down there.”

Perhaps the most positive sign for the Bearcats is that despite the fact that Jeff Wolniewicz did not bring his A-game, Vinal and Shearer were able to pick him up. After his first round 69, Wolniewicz struggled but still managed to finish respectably.

“Jeff Wolniewicz is the leader of this team and everybody looks up to him for more than just his scores. All the players count on him so much for support and comfort. Jeff has an incredible mental capacity for the game of golf. He will go over and analyze every shot from his rounds to see how he could improve in the future. But, more importantly, he does not hold on to negative thoughts that arise from his bad shots and they don’t stop him from competing and doing the best he can on the golf course,” Lasky said.

Because of the extremely competitive nature of Division I golf, and because of the deep lineup that Binghamton possesses, there is plenty of speculation that the lineup will be changed around during the course of the season.

“Other players who have not gotten a shot yet are playing very well and they need to be given the opportunity to perform. But when they are given that opportunity, they need to rise to the challenge and play well for us,” Lasky said.

Continually this season, Binghamton has put its strong clubhouse chemistry on display, playing not for the individual, but the collective results, which have been impressive so far. The team will next participate in the Dartmouth Invitational this weekend.