Rutgers
Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational
Men’s Golf Heads to Vero Beach for Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational
Oct 16 | Men's Golf
Scarlet Knights Look to Build on Back-to-Back Podium Finishes
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's golf has finished on the podium in each of its last two events. The Scarlet Knights now head south to Vero Beach, Fla., for the Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational. The tournament, hosted by Michigan State, runs Sunday, Oct. 18 and Monday, Oct. 19.
Rutgers enters the week coming off a second-place finish at the Hamptons Intercollegiate at the historic Maidstone Club. The Scarlet Knights posted the low team round of the final day, a 3-over 291 in brutal wind, to pass Wake Forest and Ole Miss and finish at 873 (+9) in a 12-team field. Two weeks earlier, they placed third of 15 teams at the Gopher Invitational, finishing ahead of Cincinnati, Marquette and West Virginia.
Junior Bennett Espenshade has led the charge all fall. He tied for fourth at Maidstone at 3-under 213 and was the only Scarlet Knight under par for the week. That gives him four straight top-10 finishes to open the season. He believes the team's best golf is still ahead.
"I'm super stoked to see where we are as a team," Espenshade said. "With how we're finishing, it feels like we're doing it without our best stuff. Once all five guys start clicking, we're going to be able to run away and win some tournaments."
Junior Argyle Downes gives Rutgers a second steady presence near the top of the leaderboard. He fired a final-round 70 at Maidstone to jump 23 spots into a tie for ninth, after finishing 12th at the Gopher. He sees plenty left to play for this fall.
"Our team is really solid this year," Downes said. "Like I said, we can really upset some people and shock the golf world, you could say. We should have two more strong results, maybe get a win, and finish the fall on a high note."
Quail Valley will look nothing like the windswept links the Scarlet Knights just survived on Long Island. Espenshade expects scoring to be low.
"It's going to be a completely different animal," Espenshade said. "That place is a birdie fest. It's about shifting your mindset from grinding it out this week to getting in attack mode and posting some low numbers."
Head coach Rob Shutte said the Florida conditions will test a different set of skills.
"It's such a different style of golf," Shutte said. "When we get down there, we'll figure out who can hit the knockdown wedge shots out of the thick, grainy Bermuda and who can read the grain. Quail Valley's hospitality is high, and the membership seems to like our guys because our guys know how to talk. It's always fun to reconnect with a lot of familiar faces down there and keep up much of the same."
Shutte said results matter, but the program's focus stays on long-term development.
"We always take the big-picture approach, which is helping guys get better at golf," Shutte said. "We're trying to develop them to be better in college and better after college. The expectation is to keep coming to practice, have really good practices, have coachable guys and coach them hard, and hopefully the results will follow. It's kind of like an arms race with all the other teams in the country. Are they going to get better during the year, or are we? So it's about finding shots and ways for guys to get better. It's a process approach of showing up every day with the lunch pail and being excited to get better."
The Field
Rutgers is one of 16 programs in Vero Beach, including Big Ten foes Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Penn State. The field also includes Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, Kansas, Liberty, Marquette, Memphis, Northern Illinois, South Florida and UNC Greensboro.
Rutgers Lineup
Bennett Espenshade
Argyle Downes
Lucas Politano
Daniel Martinez Regal
TJ Thompson
Carlo Melgrati
Follow Along
Live scoring is available on Clippd Scoreboard.
Up Next
Rutgers closes the fall at the Steelwood Collegiate in Loxley, Ala., Oct. 31–Nov. 1.
