Courtesy of Brian Beard

The men’s golf team competed in two tournaments last weekend, breaking the program record for single-round team scoring in the first round of the Farmingdale Spring Invitational, and placing third overall.

This spring has been nothing short of a success for the team, which has posted top half finishes in all of its invitationals, including two podium finishes. In the first week of April, the Polar Bears finished second in the Bantam/Hawks Invitational hosted by Trinity College, ahead of all other NESCAC competitors.

On Thursday, the team played at the Bethpage State Park Black Course, which is famous for hosting major professional tournaments including the U.S. Open in 2002 and 2009, the 2019 PGA Championship and the 2025 Ryder Cup.

Bethpage Black is also known as one of the toughest courses in the world. Henry Mariscal ’28 noted how the team prepared for the three days of competition on the course.

“The course was really long, so we were trying to work on our driver shots to prepare for Thursday,” Mariscal said.

On Thursday, the team battled through the notoriously tough course conditions, with fifth place and top Bowdoin finisher Andrew Flynn ’27 shooting five over par. Mariscal and Joey Zheng ’27 rounded out the Polar Bears’ second and third finishers at 23rd and 29th place, respectively.

The team had a day of practice on Friday before their second tournament of the weekend, held on the Bethpage State Park Red Course.

Mariscal spoke to the team’s strengths in focusing during long weekends of play.

“Last weekend, we had one of our worst days of the season on Saturday, but we played better the next day,” Mariscal said. “We didn’t let it affect us that we played badly on Thursday. We were confident, and we just reset.”

The Polar Bears did just that, with the team breaking the single round team record with a 277 (-3) in the first round on Saturday. The new record was cemented by under par scores from Mariscal (-3), Zheng (-2) and Flynn (-1). The Polar Bears finished third overall, with Zheng (E, T3), Flynn (+1, T8) and Adam Eskin ’28 (+1, T8) posting top ten performances in the 96-person field.

Mariscal spoke to the team’s strong performance and ability to compete with fellow NESCAC competitors at the invitational.

“Amherst [College] has beat us in every tournament. Honestly, I don’t think we’ve beaten them in a single round up until this last weekend,” Mariscal said. “That’s a good sign that we can definitely compete with them.”

The team looks toward the NESCAC Championships this upcoming weekend, hosted by Trinity College.

“I’m excited to play this course, and I think basically no one in the whole tournament has ever played it, which is exciting,” Mariscal said. “It’s the biggest tournament of the year, so I hope we can play our best.”