Heading into this past weekend’s Bearcat Invitational Tournament, Georgetown men’s golf coach Tommy Hunter was cautiously optimistic about his team’s prospects, but the Hoyas managed a fifth place finish despite a talented field of 15 teams. An overall score of 289 in their final round brought the team within 13 strokes of tournament champion Austin Peay.
“Anytime we travel to the Midwest we will compete against a number of experienced and talented golf teams,” Hunter wrote in an email. “We knew going in we had to play well in order to gain a respectable finish.”
Senior captain Brian Dorfman (-3) caught fire on his final 18 holes to catapult the Hoyas to their second best finish of the season. After 54 holes, Dorfman was three under par for the day, tied with Cincinnati’s David Tepe atop the leader board of 79 golfers.
“Brian made a spectacular par on the first sudden death hole and walked away with his third career win,” Hunter wrote.
Dorfman was not the only Hoya to make big shots when it mattered. Freshman Greg Podufal (+10) shot a one-under 70 and senior Taylor Hall (+12) shot three birdies in a row, helping the Hoyas climb from ninth place to fifth on the final day of play.
After this weekend’s exciting finish, Hunter’s squad looks forward to hosting next week’s Georgetown Intercollegiate at the Members Club at Four Streams in Beallsville, Maryland.
“The momentum from this last round will hopefully remain with us and carry us through,” Hunter wrote.
The women’s squad competed against 19 other teams at the Lady Pirate Intercollegiate, hosted by East Carolina University this past Monday and Tuesday. Despite the Hoyas’ last-place showing, finishing a distant 62 strokes behind tournament champion Maryland, head coach Katie Brophy took several positives away from this weekend.
“We hit more fairways than we have, we had more birdies than we’ve had all season,” she said.
Senior captain Eunae Jo led the way for the Hoyas, shooting a 229 (+13) to finish tied for 41st place. She also posted one of the highlights of the event with her first hole-in-one as a Hoya.
Brophy remains optimistic about the remainder of the Hoyas’ fall season despite their less-than-imposing performance this week. The team has already achieved three top-ten overall finishes this year, and with an assortment of talented young golfers like Alice Choi and Isabelle Galantino, the squad should only improve going forward.
“Youth is definitely one of our advantages,” Brophy said. “Alice and Isabelle are two of our best golfers and they will be for the next few years.”
Players from the team could not be reached for comment.
