Saturday, April 23
Columbus, Ohio
Rutgers
at
Robert Kepler Intercollegiate
Photo by: Rich Graessle
Men’s Golf Finishes 8th at Ohio State Robert Kepler Intercollegiate, Looks Ahead to Big Ten Tournament Friday
Apr 25 | Men's Golf
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers men's golf team finished in eighth place at the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate at Ohio State University this weekend.
The Scarlet Knights shot a +8 but started and finished strong in rounds 1 and 3.
Sophomore Rhett Sellers had one of his best performances of the season as he was tied for 12th place in the entire pool of golfers. Sellers shot a 213 on the weekend and was in the top-10 after Round 2 on Saturday.
"We had a number of positives come out of this weekend," head coach Rob Shutte said. "Rhett had a chance to win going into the final round. He got himself close to a top-10 finish which was his best finish of the spring and arguably of the year."
"Xavier Marcoux to be able to shoot that number and win on Sunday was impressive," Shutte said. "He had to change his grip from interlocked to overlapped because his hands were cracking and bleeding out there. He has never played with an overlapped grip, but it was the only way for him to take the pain away. He's never done that before, and he played his best round of the tournament that way."
Shutte believes that Rutgers is playing its best golf of the season heading into the Big Ten Tournament in French Lick, Ind. on Friday.
"You just look at a bunch of the data points and see where some of these other teams in the Big Ten are at," Shutte said. "Just looking at their expectations going into the Big Ten Tournament and seeing how our finishes compare theirs. Sunday's three-over performance from us was right up there with some of the best teams in the conference."
"Round 2 was what kind of hurt us," Shutte said. "But there were a lot of data points there this weekend that show us if we play our best with most of these teams in the conference we can be right there. What Illinois did this weekend was incredible. But we feel like we are playing our best golf here heading into next weekend."
The Scarlet Knights will roll with the same lineup of Xavier Marcoux, Luke Wells, Rhett Sellers, Weston Jones, Brendan Hansen, and Cade Anderson in French Lick.
"We are sending the same group of players out there this weekend," Shutte said. "We are extremely young, so we hope there's not a lot of pressure on our guys to go out there and have fun. We want to play boldly and smart at the same time out there."
Shutte said the course in French Lick is a tough one, but he expects his players to be prepared as they study it on video throughout the week heading into Friday.
Shutte has loved the team chemistry of his young group and expects that to continue of the biggest stage of the season on Friday.
"I expect the guys to be ready for the practice round," Shutte said. "We had our best practice round of the year at Ohio State in terms of guys starting to really buy in. We have a lot of videos of the golf course ahead of time to be prepared before we step foot there. I want the guys to really enjoy themselves. They had a really good time together this year. I expect them to have a ton of fun and treat it like any other tournament."
The Scarlet Knights shot a +8 but started and finished strong in rounds 1 and 3.
Sophomore Rhett Sellers had one of his best performances of the season as he was tied for 12th place in the entire pool of golfers. Sellers shot a 213 on the weekend and was in the top-10 after Round 2 on Saturday.
"We had a number of positives come out of this weekend," head coach Rob Shutte said. "Rhett had a chance to win going into the final round. He got himself close to a top-10 finish which was his best finish of the spring and arguably of the year."
Junior captain Xavier Marcoux continued his strong play for the Scarlet Knights with a 19th place finished. Marcoux shot a 217 on the weekend and finished strong shooting a 69 on Sunday. Marcoux battled with some blisters on his hands and Shutte was impressed with our he finished strong with a new grip on his clubs.Kepler Intercollegiate recap with X, Rhett and @CoachShutte🎤⬇️@xmarcoux29 shot an impressive final round 69 (-3), improving 27 positions to earn a T19 finish🪓 @rhetttsellers earned his best result of the spring with a T12 finish in a deep field🔨 #JerseyJuice🥤 #GoRU⚔️ pic.twitter.com/334QewtfQr
— Rutgers Mens Golf (@RUMensGolf) April 24, 2022
"Xavier Marcoux to be able to shoot that number and win on Sunday was impressive," Shutte said. "He had to change his grip from interlocked to overlapped because his hands were cracking and bleeding out there. He has never played with an overlapped grip, but it was the only way for him to take the pain away. He's never done that before, and he played his best round of the tournament that way."
Shutte believes that Rutgers is playing its best golf of the season heading into the Big Ten Tournament in French Lick, Ind. on Friday.
"You just look at a bunch of the data points and see where some of these other teams in the Big Ten are at," Shutte said. "Just looking at their expectations going into the Big Ten Tournament and seeing how our finishes compare theirs. Sunday's three-over performance from us was right up there with some of the best teams in the conference."
Illinois, one of the best teams in the country led the way in first place with a -30 finish and host school Ohio State finished in second place with a -17 finish.Closing bird for @rhetttsellers to cap off a great performance here in Columbus!
— Rutgers Mens Golf (@RUMensGolf) April 24, 2022
The sophomore Knight closed the tournament at three under par to earn his best finish of the spring #JerseyJuice🥤 #GoRU⚔️ pic.twitter.com/DLbgOLbq3c
"Round 2 was what kind of hurt us," Shutte said. "But there were a lot of data points there this weekend that show us if we play our best with most of these teams in the conference we can be right there. What Illinois did this weekend was incredible. But we feel like we are playing our best golf here heading into next weekend."
The Scarlet Knights will roll with the same lineup of Xavier Marcoux, Luke Wells, Rhett Sellers, Weston Jones, Brendan Hansen, and Cade Anderson in French Lick.
"We are sending the same group of players out there this weekend," Shutte said. "We are extremely young, so we hope there's not a lot of pressure on our guys to go out there and have fun. We want to play boldly and smart at the same time out there."
Shutte said the course in French Lick is a tough one, but he expects his players to be prepared as they study it on video throughout the week heading into Friday.
"This golf course set up is going to be very on the edge," Shutte said. "Everything is going to be middle pins in the practice round and everyone will hit it well. It's going to be a lot of pins on the edges when the tournament starts. Great shots are going to be rewarded. I expect green speeds to be way up, the rough will be way up and the wind will be up."Knights & Sounds: OSU Robert Kepler Intercollegiate Practice Round 🌰 #JerseyJuice🥤 #GoRU⚔️ pic.twitter.com/GJqiqGEEjG
— Rutgers Mens Golf (@RUMensGolf) April 23, 2022
Shutte has loved the team chemistry of his young group and expects that to continue of the biggest stage of the season on Friday.
"I expect the guys to be ready for the practice round," Shutte said. "We had our best practice round of the year at Ohio State in terms of guys starting to really buy in. We have a lot of videos of the golf course ahead of time to be prepared before we step foot there. I want the guys to really enjoy themselves. They had a really good time together this year. I expect them to have a ton of fun and treat it like any other tournament."
🏌️ 🤝 🎾
— Rutgers Mens Golf (@RUMensGolf) April 24, 2022
Awesome to catch up with @RutgersTennis for a little post-competition dinner in Columbus tonight! #RFamily #GoRU ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/xCN8Ns9DOJ
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