The men’s golf team traveled to Ithaca, N.Y. this past weekend to take on Cornell and 12 other teams on Cornell’s home turf. The team was coming off their strongest performance of their short season at Bucknell the last weekend.

“[We’re] trying to ride [the] emotional high into this [match],” first-year Robbie Yosaitis said.

Heading into the match, they were confident they could perform very well.

“We had a fearless attitude”, first-year Ryan Allison said.

Funny enough, the Cornell course was designed by Robert Trent Jones, the same architect who designed our very own Seven Oaks course.

“[Jones’ course] really played to our advantages [as] it rewarded longer and [more] accurate ball strikers,” Yosaitis said. 

The team certainly did well this weekend, finishing 5th overall behind a Dartmouth team that has barely outperformed the Raiders in previous matches this year.

Allison posted phenomenal scores of 74, 71 and 73, earning him a tie for 3rd place overall. He attributed his low score to his iron game.

 “I had total control and the majority of my shots ended up where I wanted them,” Allison said. 

He also admitted to a little luck in that even when he missed a shot, it ended up on the green.

A highlight of the weekend for Allison occurred on the 12th hole during his final round, where his tee shot landed mere inches from a hole-in-one. 

Yosaitis finished tied 12th overall with scores of 75, 72 and 77. Yosaitis’ finish was second-best for the Raiders on the weekend. Yosaitis was able to gain momentum early in the tournament on the first hole.

“I landed an approach shot [that landed] inside a foot of the hole which allowed for an easy tap in for birdie,” Yosaitis said.

After matching his birdie totals from the previous week, Yosaitis had a lot of confidence that showed in his scores for the weekend. Even with the difficult greens that Allison previously noted were characteristic of Cornell’s course, Yosaitis was able to produce great scores.

“My philosophy was that if I got the ball close, it was going in the hole,”

Yosaitis said.

Following Yosaitis was first-year Henry Wesson who posted scores of 77, 79 and 77 to tie for 34th overall with fellow first-year Ian Lynch, who competed as an individual and  finished with rounds of 80, 74 and 79. First-year Chris Wilson had rounds of 84, 77 and 77 and sophomore Zenon Bishop had rounds of 80, 83 and 78 to finish up the Raiders scoring.

The Raiders head to West Point, NY in two weeks for the Stars and Stripes Invitational at Army’s home turf where they will take on many of their Patriot League rivals. The team has placed well in their three tournaments this year, but are certainly not satisfied, as they know they can finish tournaments better.

 “All in all, it was a great tournament, but we can’t be satisfied with 5th [as] we want to win tournaments and win the Patriot League. In order to make it to regionals, something no other Colgate golf team has ever done, we must be better,”

Yosaitis said.

                                                                                             Contact Quinn Daly at [email protected].