The Seton Hall Pirates men's golf team took ninth place at the Hartford Hawks Invitational on Tuesday, finishing with a 17-over par, 305, in round three.
In the 54-hole tournament, the Pirates finished at 51-over-par with a 304-306-305-915. They finished 47 strokes behind Rutgers who won the invitational.
A new addition to the team, freshman Lloyd Jefferson Go, led for the Pirates finishing with a 7-over-par, (233), and individually tying for 14th place among 96 golfers.
He finished 16 strokes behind Hartford's Evan Russell who won the individual crown finishing with a 9-under-par.
Head coach Clay White said that Go brings experience to the team. "He brings a sense of calm about his game," Coach White said. "He doesn't get too excited, he doesn't get too down, he just plays and has a ton of tournament experience."
Junior J.T. Harper performed best in the last round of the tournament, shooting a 2-over-par 74. He finished tied for 21st with a 10-over-par, 75-77-74-226.
Sophomore Kevin Sanislo finished tied for 45th with a 17-over- par, 79-77-77-233.
Finishing one stroke behind Sanislo was fellow sophomore Cory Wilson who finished with an 18-over-par, 75-79-80-234. "The first tournament we finished 12th, second we finished 11th, this tournament we finished 9th, so we're making small steps," White said.
"It's always good that you improve a little bit."
Although the team is making steps, White said he would like to see more improvements.
"We definitely want to beat Rutgers," White said. "We just have to get a little better where we aren't recording scores above 75.
Our lowest score this week was 74 and Rutger's lowest was probably 68. Their lowest scores are six shots better so we need to get to a point where we can grind out when we aren't playing well and record a 75 instead of a 78 or 79."
The team will return to the links when they head to Chicgo for the John Dallio Memorial Tournament this Saturday. White said the team is excited about heading to the Windy City.
"It's a fun trip," White said. "We kind of need to relax a little bit and not have so many expectations about how we should play and where we should place and just play golf."
Courtney Hnasko can be reached at courtney.hnasko@student.shu.edu.
