After a full season of competition, the Binghamton golf team concluded its season at the Big Sky Conference Championships in Scottsdale, Arizona. The three-round tournament ended with the Bearcats in sixth place out of six teams and at a total score of 58 over par.
Round one began on Monday at Talking Stick Golf Club, with freshman Brandon Conner carding an even par round of 70. This was good enough to place him tied for third after the end of the first round. Despite a shaky front nine that included three bogeys, Conner recovered on the back nine, tallying three birdies to bring him toward the top of the leaderboard.
“[Conner] played really well today,” said Binghamton head coach Bernie Herceg. “He finally made a few putts on the back nine. We started off slow and tried to fight back. I’m proud of how they kept their composure throughout the round, but we had a few mishaps toward the end. We’ll get some work in now and be ready for tomorrow.”
Senior Evan Sitts and sophomore Shawn Colella both shot five over par in round one and tied for 17th. Additionally, sophomores Ryan Millevoi and Tynan Jones sat in ties for 23rd and 27th place, respectively, at the end of day one. Going into round two, the Bearcats found themselves in fifth place overall with a team score of 296 strokes.
After round two, the Bearcats remained in fifth place. Conner followed up his impressive round one with a five-over score of 75 that dropped him eight spots into a tie for 11th. Sitts and Colella managed to improve their scores from round one, both carding rounds of 73 as they sat tied for 19th. Millevoi, meanwhile, dropped to a tie for 26th with a round two score of 80, and Jones carded an 82 to round out the BU team.
“Tough finish for our guys today,” Herceg said. “We were playing pretty solid through our first nine, and we were looking to finish strong, but unfortunately we weren’t able to. [Sitts] had a real good round going, and it’s too bad he had a tough last hole. We’re looking to have a good round tomorrow and finish strong.”
On Wednesday, Binghamton played the third and final round of the tournament. The Bearcats scored the same as they did in round two with a total team score of 301, 21 over par. Conner and Sitts turned in round three scores of five over par to finish in ties for 16th and 18th, respectively. Millevoi also shot a five over 75 to finish with a net score of 21 over par to secure 27th place. Colella shot a 76 to finish the tournament in sole possession of 20th place, and Jones ended his tournament with a nine-over round to finish in 29th place.
BU ends its season with no first-place victories despite participating in 10 tournaments across the fall and spring seasons. The Bearcats’ best finish of the year was at their home meet back in October during the Matthews Auto Intercollegiate where they finished seventh out of 10 teams.
“We were hoping to finish strong today, but it was a tough scoring day for us, and we didn’t manage our games as well as we should have,” Herceg said. “Tough tournament, we worked real hard leading into this event and didn’t get the results we wanted. Our young players will learn a lot from this tournament and be stronger from it.”