Golf drives its way to 18th place

By Kevin Prendergast
Collegian Staff
April 16, 2008

Just an hour’s drive north of here, the Explorer golf team participated in a large, two-day tournament this past Masters weekend at beautiful Center Valley Country Club. The Lafayette Invitational, in which 25 teams participated, began on Saturday morning.

A somewhat unusual fog delay kept the tournament from commencing at its scheduled time of 8 a.m. But, after a considerable amount of time, the fog eventually cleared and play began. As a team, the Explorers got out to a hot start on the front nine. Three of the five golfers, senior Chris Caimano, sophomore Phil Bruce and freshman Sam Venuti shot under 40 on the front nine.

However, the back nine would prove to be a much tougher test for the team, with no one scoring lower than 40. The team scores are based upon the total scores of the top four golfers for each team. On the day, the Explorers’ top four golfers shot a combined 319 (+31)—good for 21st place after the opening round, with rival Drexel, who shot a combined 289 (+1), at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the first day.

La Salle was led by three scores of 79, which came from Caimano, Bruce and Venuti. It was not quite the start they’d hoped for, but the second day would prove to be much better for the club.

On the second day, the team was able to lower its combined score by two strokes, down to 317 (+29). This moved the Explorers up three spots to 18th in the standings. Senior Mike Benzinger led the team on the second day of competition with a score of 78 (+6). He was followed by a pair of 79s from Caimano and junior Steve Sieracki.

Caimano’s two rounds of 79, for a combined two-day total of 158 (+14), placed him 53rd out of the 126 participants, which was the best of any La Salle golfer. And, in a sizeable comeback, Bucknell moved from eighth place after day one to finish first in the tournament. Drexel squandered its seven-shot first-day lead by shooting a 20-over-par 308 on the second day to finish a mere three strokes behind Bucknell.

prendergastk1@lasalle.edu