by The Cowl Editor on November 21, 2019
Friar Sports
By Scott Jarosz ’21
Sports Staff
The Providence College club golf team recently journeyed southwest to WinStar World Casino & Resort in the small town of Thackerville, OK to take part in the National Collegiate Club Golf Association Fall 2019 National Championship. According to the NCCGA website, this marked the first time the tournament was held in Oklahoma.
This fall’s national championship consisted of 28 club golf teams representing schools from across the entire country who had qualified to compete. The two teams that qualified automatically for the event were Clemson University and Xavier University, as they had won the Spring 2019 National Championship and National Invitational respectively.
PC qualified for participation in the Fall 2019 National Championship by winning the NCCGA New England Regional back in October. PC beat out second place University of New Hampshire, who also qualified for the National Championship, by a whopping 39 strokes in the regional.
The Fall 2019 National Championship consisted of two rounds that were played over the course of two days for a total of 36 holes of stroke play. Team scores for each round were calculated as a sum of the five best scores out of the eight players who competed per team. The team with the lowest total score after the two rounds would be declared the winner.
Players arrived in Oklahoma on Friday, November 15, and began play the next day. PC came out of the gates in round one playing excellent golf. In round one, the team posted a score of 372, which tied PC with the University of Florida at fourth place out of 27 competing teams.
The low scorer for PC on day one was Dave Carey ’22 who shot an outstanding 72. Not only did Carey shoot the team’s lowest score for this round, but he also tied for third place out of 226 golfers in the individual leaderboard after round one.
PC held its own in round two of the championship, shooting a combined 378, which was just six shots higher than its previous round. The low scorer for PC in the second round was Rio Holzwarth ’22 who shot a 72, followed by Carey who shot a 75. PC ultimately finished in ninth place, 17 shots behind Clemson University, the champion of the NCCGA Fall 2019 National Championship.
The low scorer of the tournament for the Friars was Carey, who posted rounds of 72 and 75 for a combined 147. With this score, Carey finished tied for 19th place out of 226 individual golfers.
When asked what it was like to represent PC on a national level, Carey stated, “It was an honor to represent Providence College and play the game I love on a national level.”
When asked what he focused on that allowed him to play so well in the tournament, Carey responded, “I really focused on staying strong mentally even after a bad shot. Coach Conley and my teammate Cole Manning ’20 helped me to stay positive and focused on the course, which greatly contributed to my success.”
Carey’s points of focus were clearly effective as he finished near the top of the leaderboard out of 226 golfers. Holzwarth followed Carey with a score of 149, and Alex Bassetto ’20 finished with a score of 151.
Quality performances by all members of the PC club golf team led the team to finish ninth out of 27 competing schools in the National Championship.