September 24, 2007 - Brewington 1st of 74 / Rider 5th of 14 at Leo Keenan Invitational
September 24, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Golf
at Leo Keenan Invitational
Rider’s Brewington 1st of 74 / Rider 5th of 14
OLEAN, N.Y.—Rider senior Tyler Brewington shot a 71 and finished at even par 140 to win the Leo Keenan Invitational hosted by St. Bonaventure. “I was really happy with our play yesterday,” said head coach Bob Whartenby. “We really put ourselves in great position to win the tournament. Unfortunately, we didn’t putt very well and gave up a lot of shots in today’s round.”
Brewington (Orangeville, Pa./Benton) won by two strokes over Nathan Peck (St. Bonaventure) and Robert Cronheim (Cornell), marking the second time that Brewington has won this tournament in his career. As a freshman in 2004, Brewington also shot a 140 at the 6,308 yard Bartlett Country Club as the Broncs won the team title by nine shots over the host Bonnies. Brewington placed 10th in 2005 and was runner-up last season.
“Tyler has now had a third, second and now a first place this season,” Whartenby added. “He won this tournament his freshman year and it was nice to see him do it again. He played well and did what he had to do to get the job done.”
“I hit the ball pretty good on Sunday but I didn’t hit that great today,” said Brewington. “I was able to get up and down and made some key puts and just kind of kept rolling. I made a par save on the 13th and I eagled the 14th and played in from there. Compared to last weekend when I finished second at the Bucknell Invitational by one shot, I was more consistent with my putting and that won the tournament for me.”
On Monday, Rider shot a 304 and finished with a two-day total of 592 placing fifth out of 14 teams. St. Bonaventure won the overall team title with a 580.
“This is my favorite course to play in the fall,” Brewington said. “I don’t know what it is about the course, maybe because it was my first win in college. The win today was very important for me because I’ve been so close so far this fall and this is the last collegiate tournament that I will get to play here so I wanted to go out on top and I was able to do that.”
Also for the Broncs, junior Eric LeFante (Colts Neck, N.J./Colts Neck) shot a 75 for a two-day total of 146 and placed 12th out of 74 golfers. Freshman Brent Wolgast (Bay City, Mich./Pendleton) shot a 79 and finished with a 151 finishing 32nd. Freshman Brian Accorsini (Hopkinton, Mass./Hopkinton) shot a 79 for a two-day total of 155 (47th place) and sophomore Kevin Krecicki (Hamilton, N.J./Nottingham) shot an 81 (two-day total of 165) and placed 70th.
Wolgast led the tournament field with eight birdies out of the 36 holes and the Rider team had 25 birdies overall. The Rider team also scored the lowest par three average of the tournament.
“Our long game was ok,” Whartenby added. “Everyone kept three putting over and over. This will be a learning experience for our younger players. It just shows you how important putting really is. Ball striking is really secondary to that.”
“The greens at this course aren’t really tricky but they are slopped and if you land on the wrong side of the green, you have to be careful about your speed,” Brewington said of the struggles by the younger players. “This is the first time a lot of the guys have played this course so they will learn from what they experienced and that will make them better players.”
Rider travels to Ithaca, New York for the Cornell Invitational Saturday and Sunday.
-RU-
Team Scoring
1 St. Bonaventure U. 297 283 580 +20
2 Duquesne University 289 296 585 +25
3 Cornell University 301 286 587 +27
4 Robert Morris Univ. 304 287 591 +31
5 Rider University 288 304 592 +32
6 Ottawa 295 298 593 +33
7 Long Island U-Brklyn 294 306 600 +40
8 Siena College 306 297 603 +43
9 Bucknell University 304 300 604 +44
10 Niagara University 309 300 609 +49
11 Canisius College 297 313 610 +50
12 St. Bona Brown 311 306 617 +57
13 St. Francis-Pennsyl. 316 307 623 +63
14 La Salle University 318 325 643 +83
