The St. John’s men’s golf team placed fourth at their opening tournament of the year, The McLaughlin, at Bethpage Red on Sept. 16-17.
Playing as hosts at the Long Island course, the Red Storm enjoyed cool weather and strong performances from senior Mark Costanza and junior Pat Wilson. They tied for 13th place after shooting 71 on Saturday and 210 for the weekend.
“They both played really, really well,” said head coach Frank Darby. “It was a good opening event for them”
Freshman Dylan Crowley improved steadily over the course of the weekend. He recorded a 72 on Saturday, following a performance of 151 on Friday, which included rounds of 77 and 74.
Crowley came to St. John’s from Notre Dame High School in Los Angeles, but is originally from New York, which may have affected his nerves according to Darby.
“Dylan Crowley played better the last two rounds,” said Darby. “Sometimes it’s hard to come back into your backyard and then play in your opening event. I think he may have been a little bit nervous. He’s got a lot of talent and it will be nice to be up in Connecticut this week, where his focus will be a little different.”
Sophomore Ryan McCormick had the low score for the day on Saturday, shooting a 69, while junior Jeremy Quinn wasn’t too far behind the others, scoring a 77 for the team to close out the weekend.
The Red Storm hosts the McLaughlin, but they don’t practice there. Because of this, according to Darby, they have no advantage over any other school competing there.
“The McLaughlin is a strange event for us because even though we’re the host at Bethpage, we never play Bethpage. It’s too crowded,” he said. “So really it’s like going to a brand new event. There really isn’t any kind of advantage and actually sometimes it kind of works against us because that type of course really isn’t for our guys’ types of game. We’ve had a few guys play well for us there in the past, but it is really a different kind of target for us.”
The Red Storm will stay in the Northeast this weekend they head to South Kent, Conn. to compete in the Hartford Hawks Invitational.
