Westchester, IL. - The Rutgers men's golf team wrapped up another top-10 finish in back-to-back tournaments as the team placed seventh at the Chicago Highlands Invitational hosted by Wake Forest.
In a tournament that hosted three schools in the Bushnell/Golfweek Division I, Coaches Poll, the Scarlet Knights shot an impressive four-under. The team would earn a final score of 860 (294-284-282).
Luke Wells, earned his best finish of the season as he finished tied for fifth-place after shooting five-under-par with an impressive score of 67 in his final round of play. After posting a plus-one after his first round, the graduate student bounced back with ten birdies on the final two rounds.
"I just tried to stay mentally tough the whole week. I boogied my first two holes on the second round and thought wow what just happened and saw I jumped back to 60th," Wells explained.
Waking up Sunday morning with a illness Wells didn't know if he would even be able to play but the Ohio native would go on to turn in his scorecard with a total score of 207 (73-67-67) after the two days of play including a bogey-free final round.
"To go my last 36 holes without a boogie showed that I was much more focused on being mentally tough and less about shooting good scores. It ended up working well this week."
Rutgers would struggle on the first day of the tournament as Wells credits the tough course for a slow start. "I thought it was a tough golf course. I thought the team battled very well because through the first 20 holes we were in last place. But I thought we were pretty gritty when it came to the rain," says Wells.
Wells', best shot of the day came in round 3 on a par five from 615 yards on the longest hole on the course in which he earned an eagle.
"I was talking to Coach Shutte and I just wanted to hit it inside 15 to 20 feet to get a look because there was a big slope that it could have gone down and given me an automatic boogie," explained Wells.
"I just hit a bump and run chip in the hill took a good turn on the green and it ended up going in. I thought to myself 'alright wow that was cool! Didn't expect that to go in.'"
RU would bounce back tremendously in the final round as not even the rainy conditions on day 2 could slow down the Scarlet Knights. On Tuesday afternoon, the team produced a team score of 282 on the final day of play which was the third-best score of the day.
Xavier Marcoux, produced his first top-30 finish off the season tied for 30
th place with a score of 217 (73-75-69). Marcoux helped RU climb the score sheet after shooting five birdies on the final round to earn him a three-under-par on Tuesday afternoon.
In his second start of the season,
Martín León, placed himself in a tie for 36
th place with a final score of 218 (73-72-73). The junior had two birdies on the back nine to bring him to one-over par after round 3.
Senior,
Rhett Sellers, completed the tournament tied for 41st place with a score of 219 (75-70-74). The senior carded an eagle on his last hole of the day.
Weston Jones shot a 231 (78-80-73) during the two-day event. His four birdies throughout the tournament placed him in 75th place.
RU would finish with 43 team birdies and two team eagles. Led by Wells, the RU grad student had 14 birdies only four behind the tournament leader Bryan Lee from Virginia.
Wake Forest and Missouri were crowned co-champions of the tournament with a final score of thirty-one-under par.
Wake Forest's Michael Brennan received the individual tournament win with a score of twelve-under-par.
After two tournaments Wells and his teammates have high expectations for this season. The graduate believes that his team has what it takes to finally break the streak to get the Scarlet Knights to Nationals.
"I think a good year for us would definitely be Nationals. I believe that this team is good enough to beat all of these teams," proclaims Wells. "I think this team can make a Nationals run."
Rutgers will travel to South Bend, Indiana on October 1-2 for the Fighting Irish Classic hosted by Notre Dame.
