This past weekend was one of opposite stories for the golf teams; the men's struggling, finishing 12th out of 15 in the Navy Fall Classic, while the women's team started their 2012-2013 campaign off strong, finishing tied for second out of 15 in the Lady Bison Fall Classic.
The men's team had trouble from the beginning of the tournament, shooting the third worst first-round score of the tournament, shooting a 310. The team bounced back in the second round, shooting a 302 to finish the tournament with a 44-over-par 612.
The top four golfers for the Pirates were within two shots of each other, with sophomores Derrick Kim and Marc Kunesch tied for the best score on the team with a 10-over-par final score of 152. Junior Gary Dunne and freshman Cory Wilson were two strokes behind Kim and Kunesch at a 12-over-par 154.
Head coach Clay White attributed the struggles to a young squad and thought that the team needed to be more consistent and do a better job on the greens if they wanted to improve their play.
Meanwhile, on the women's side, they too struggled to open up the tournament, shooting a 322 in the first round. Seton Hall redeemed themselves in the second round, finishing with the best score of the round at 298. They finished the tournament with a 311 third round to end the tournament with a 91-over-par 931.
The top four women's teams were separated by two strokes. Seton Hall lost by one stroke to tournament champion Boston University, tied with Rutgers for second place and was followed by Radford, who was one stroke behind them.
On the individual side, freshman Megan Tenhundfeld started her collegiate career strong, finishing her first match as a Pirate with an eighth place finish, finishing the tournament with a 20-over-par 230. She had a very good start, hitting a 75 first round and a 71 second, but then struggled in the third, shooting an 84. Head coach Sara Doell was impressed by Tenhundfeld's performance in her first collegiate tournament.
"I was very impressed [with Megan's performance]," Doell said. "Obviously the numbers were great, but that's not what I [focus on]. I say this to the girls all the time, you're not your golf score, I don't judge you by your number, I judge you by your effort, and Megan is very very consistent, which is nice to see. You don't see her in crazy places on the golf course, it's not like 'where is Megan, she's in the wrong fairway,' she's consistent, and she hits it far, which is good, and that's certainly going to take her a long way."
Tenhundfeld liked the way she played in her first tournament, but was disappointed in her struggles in the third round.
"I knew it was going to be a lot different than high school, I'm the freshman coming into this field of so many good players, that was definitely overwhelming but it was really cool to be able to compete with everyone," Tenhundfeld said. "Yes I am still a little bitter about the last day, I probably will be for a long time, but overall I'm still really happy. The first day went really well, I'm not complaining at all about how it ended up."
The men's team goes to the Rutgers Invitational this weekend while the women go to the St John's Intercollegiate on Monday.
