Rutgers
Gopher Invitational
Men's Golf Heads to Minnesota for Gopher Invitational
Sep 18 | Men's Golf
PISCATAWAY, N.J. ā Rutgers men's golf competes for the third time this fall, traveling to Independence, Minn., for the Gopher Invitational on Sunday and Monday, Sept. 20-21. The Scarlet Knights will tee it up at Windsong Farm Golf Club, a par-71, 7,380-yard layout designed by John Fought and Tom Lehman that has been ranked among the state's top courses since opening in 2003.
Host Minnesota has assembled one of the deeper fields on the fall calendar, with 15 teams entered: Cincinnati, Georgia, Grand Canyon, Iowa State, Kent State, Little Rock, Marquette, Miami (Ohio), Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oral Roberts, Rutgers, St. Thomas (Minn.) and West Virginia. Play runs 54 holes across the two days ā Sunday morning and afternoon rounds followed by a Monday morning finale ā with live scoring available through Clippd.
Head coach Rob Shutte's Scarlet Knights arrive off two tough tests to open the season. Rutgers finished fifth of nine teams at its own New York Harbor Cup in late August, with Bennett Espenshade turning in the highlight ā a tie for fourth individually at 7-under, the only Rutgers golfer to play under par in all three rounds. T.J. Thompson (T23), Argyle Downes (T27) and Lucas Politano (T30) rounded out the Scarlet Knights' finish behind champion Kansas. Two weeks later at the Canadian Collegiate Invitational in Muskoka, Ontario, Rutgers tied for fifth in a six-team field topped by New Mexico.
Espenshade, now a junior, has history at this event ā he posted a top-20 finish at the Gopher Invitational as a freshman ā and will again lead a Rutgers lineup that includes senior Derek Gutierrez, senior T.J. Thompson, junior Argyle Downes, sophomores Lucas Politano and Daniel Martinez-Regal, and freshmen Jamie McGeoch and Carlo Melgrati. Politano, fresh off a Vermont Amateur title this summer, gives the Knights another proven closer as they look for their first top-five finish of the fall.
Gutierrez and McGeoch will compete in the Minnesota Class at Pioneer Creek Golf Club while the rest of the Scarlet Knights are competing at the Gopher Invitiational.
