HUMACAO, Puerto Rico — The Rutgers men's golf team completed the Palmas Del Mar Collegiate this weekend and their senior captain had one of the best individual performances of the season.
Weston Jones had a stellar performance this weekend 14-team event. Jones shot
(66-68-76), 210 through the Palmas Del Mar Collegiate a finish that was just four shots off the top spot on the leaderboard. Jones is no stranger to the Palmas Del Mar course with a few seasons under his belt and finished tied for fourth overall in the individual standings, leading the field in birdies.
"It really felt good," Jones said. "Golf is a bunch of games within a game and I trusted my game enough to strategize my way through the course without any misses.
I didn't miss a lot of greens this weekend, Mentally I was in a good place and I just kept it consistent."
He finished round one in first place overall and continued his success throughout the weekend. Jones said the key moment of the weekend was in the second round. He really felt like things were going well out on the course and hit a shot in the water. He said the response to the adversity of that shot set him up for the strong finish.
"I birdied the next two holes and I knew it was going to be a great last day going forward," Jones said. "That moment of adversity was exactly what I needed to push through the wet conditions."
Head coach
Rob Shutte could tell Weston was in for a big weekend just based on his mentality and practice each morning.
"I was so proud of him (Weston), he played okay in the event last year. I am just super proud of him for being professional," Shutte said. "He walked by me and said 'I'm ready to go,' and he had only hit three or four balls in the gym."
Jones gave credit to his teammates for his performance and looks forward to their individual success.
"We have at least five players who can have this type of finish," Jones said. "I am happy that it was me for this event but I am looking forward to my teammates continuing to put Rutgers on the map."
As a team, the Scarlet Knights started the weekend off hot, battling for a top-five finish. The Scarlet Knights finished round three 10th overall in the final standings.
"There were a few bumps along the way, and the last six holes set us back a little bit," coach
Rob Shutte said. "It was super wet, and there were a ton of logistics teams that had to overcome. Unfortunately, they had so much rain down there so it was wet, and everybody lost some balls."
Senior captain
Noah Kumar, along with freshman Argyle Downs finished in the top-50 overall, while
Derek Gutierrez,
Bennett Espenshade, and
Andrew Reyes all finished on the leaderboard. Freshman
Max Jackson made his collegiate debut this weekend as an individual, impressing Schutte.
"Max has developed his body a lot and looked good on the training trip, and I thought it was good to start him as an individual," Shutte said. "He'll make his lineup debut next event."
As the Scarlet Knights turn their attention to their next tournament, Shutte and his team look to build off their performance this weekend.
"We're gonna break it down in practice, have a list of shots that we need to work on, and make it better for the next one," said Shutte. "Over the next week, we're gonna get our bodies right, and have those individual conversations and meetings and debrief what happened and create a good game plan for Colleton."
The Scarlet Knights travel to Bluffton, South Carolina for their next challenge at the Colleton River Collegiate Invitational on March 2nd and March 3rd.
