The Bowdoin College Men's Golf team secured the runner-up position behind Husson College last weekend after solid play on the links. The Bears battled six other Maine schools in the State tournament on Friday morning at Natanis Golf Club. Coming off of hot seasons last year, Captain Jeff Cutter '09 and Ryan Blossom '10 finished with All-State honors. Cutter carded a 77-76 while Blossom scored 80-77.
Two days later, Bowdoin traveled to Waterville to play in the Colby classic. Every six holes featured a different scoring format. At holes 1-6, scoring was decided by "best ball" where officials counted only the teams' best score at each hole. The next six holes featured a "scramble" in which pairs of golfers would shoot every stroke from the best spot among their team's previous shot. The final phase of the tournament involved "alternate shot" scoring where each pair took turns shooting the ball.
For Bowdoin, Turner Kufe '11 and Max Bridges '11 carded a modified score of 80, Kevin Smith '11 and James Yoo '09 shot a 76, and Blossom and Cutter scored a 71. Though the team did not capture the tournament title shooting a 227, they beat CBB rivals Bates (229) and Colby (242).
Last Wednesday, Bowdoin faced off at the UMF Invitational at the Belgrade Lakes Golf Club, where they finished third overall (338) out of 11 teams. Individually, Cutter carded a 77, which was good enough for a third-place tie. On the September 12 and 13, the Bears hosted the Bowdoin Invitational in which they posted a fourth-place finish out of 14 schools. Blossom finished 10th individually, scoring 77-78, for a two-day total score of 155. Kufe secured a 12th-place finish with a 84-74, 158, while Cutter and Yoo each finished one stroke behind.
Overall, the team feels happy with tits performance through the first four tournaments.
"So far, our team has been playing pretty well," Cutter said. "We've had several good scores in most of our tournaments that have left us in good position."
However, there is still room for improvement.
"What we're working on now is consistency down the line," Cutter said. "We could easily turn those third and fourth place finishes into first-place honors if we can all come together and put in our best rounds on the day of the tournament. Right now, that is what we're trying to improve on, bringing our best performance for the weekends."
This year, 11 sophomores made the team, which gives Bowdoin more to work with and forces everyone to be on their game.
"This year we have 11 sophomores which translates into a great deal of depth and competition for our No. 4 and No. 5 spots," Cutter said. "The increased team size puts a lot more pressure on the players trying to make the tournament cut. This I think will definitely help us down the line and come NESCACs."
The team will travel down to Middlebury to play in the NESCAC tournament, where tee-off time is still to be determined.