PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers men's golf team is on its way to Michigan State's course in Bluffton, South Carolina for the Colleton River Collegiate beginning on Monday.
The tournament will have 15 teams, with a total of 75 players. With five players on each team and a 54-hole stroke play four of the best scores per round will count for each team.
There are five teams from the Big Ten Conference competing in the event (Rutgers, Penn State, Ohio State, Minnesota, and Michigan State).
On Sunday the Scarlet Knights took in their practice round as they got ready to for the two-day event on Monday.
"We've been to this event a number of times and it's a really great field," head coach
Rob Shutte said. "We've been here a number of times and a lot of Rutgers supporters come out. It's a real comfortable spot to be. It's a lot harder golf course, which I think we play better at. It suits our style more and we can kind of grind out pars here."
The Scarlet Knights lineup will be the same as at the Dorado Beach Collegiate in Dorado, Puerto Rico last week.
The lineup is as follows for Monday:
Luke Wells,
Xavier Marcoux,
Rhett Sellers,
Weston Jones and
Brendan Hansen.
"I think this course is really nice and I am looking forward to getting on some faster greens and try to roll some putts in," Wells said. "I think we need to be more consistent. We have the talent to compete in these programs and we just have to stick to the program."
At the Dorado Beach Collegiate in Puerto Rico, junior
Luke Wells shot a 71 (-1) in his final round to complete his fifth top-25 finish of the season.
"Luke was very steady the whole time," Shutte said. "The whole golf course is tough there. You can get away with some mistakes, but he didn't make many. He was very consistent all week. I expect that to continue this week for him as well."
"The game felt alright, it didn't feel completely share, but it felt really good to get back out on grass," Wells said.
Captain
Xavier Marcoux was one stroke behind Wells on the weekend with a (-1) finish.
"Luke is one of the most consistent golfers ever and he never really has a bad round," Marcoux said. "Last weekend was a good learning experience, but we obviously didn't play as well as we wanted to. We figured out that we can play with Drexel in the second round and they were making a lot of birdies. We are very close. Brendan (Hansen) has made some big strides and he's really close to breaking out."
Rutgers as a team finished in
ninth place out of 13 teams at (-2) on the weekend in Puerto Rico.
"I think this group really wants to win," Shutte said. "I think they know what it's going to take to win. I think that they are very coachable in learning what it's going to take. We have to shoot it better, we have to putt it better and we have to play better. These guys are open to learning and they are very young, but we are constantly learning."
"I want us to compete in every event, keep playing well and make it to Regionals," Wells said.
