MGOLF Heads East to Georgetown Intercollegiate
10/20/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
SPOKANE, Wash.—The Gonzaga University men's golf team will continue its fall season over the next two days, and the Bulldogs are going a long ways to do it. They'll be competing in Beallsville, Md., at the Georgetown Intercollegiate, held at The Members Club at Four Streams.
"We're excited to back into competition after an extended break after our first event," said Gonzaga men's golf head coach Robert Gray. "We had some time to stay ahead in the classroom and work on our games. The time change will be an adjustment for us, being three hours ahead and teeing off at 5:00 a.m. PT, but we'll be ready to play."
While it may be a shock to wake up that early for some of the younger players on the team, the veterans will have experience playing early relative to Pacific time as the Zags have competed in the Eastern time zone at least once a year since the 2010-11 season.
There will also be plenty of experience in the Zags' lineup as three of the five players are upperclassmen. Junior Sean Walsh is Gonzaga's No. 1 this week, and James Fahy, a senior, will play second for the Zags. Rounding out the senior leadership, Brendan Connolly is the fourth player in Gonzaga's lineup.
Gray is taking two freshmen on the cross-country trip, but both saw action in the Zags' first tournament of the season, the Husky Invitational. Will Brueckner, playing third for Gonzaga, was on the Zags' scoring squad at the UW tournament last month while fellow freshman David Ganz played in the individual tournament that ran alongside the Husky Invitational.
At the Husky Invitational, Gonzaga tied for eighth after posting a two-day total of 893 strokes. After the performance, the Zags earned a No. 65 ranking according to Golfweek, the program's highest ranking ever at the time. Since then, the Zags have held steady at 65 and are the highest ranked team in the West Coast Conference, according to the publication.
"We're off to a great start in regards to the rankings, and we're currently the highest ranked team in the WCC," Gray said. "We definitely want to keep that going with a strong performance this week. The golf course is a great test of golf and will reward the team that makes the best decisions. You don't necessarily need to hit the best shots, but you need to make the decisions that give you the best opportunity to post a quality score."
The three-round tournament will be played in two days: today and Tuesday, Oct. 21. Play began at The Members Club at Four Streams at 5:00 a.m. Monday.
