Last weekend, the men’s golf team hosted the 21st Oswego State Fall Invitational at the Oswego Country Club. For the fourth consecutive year, the Lakers won the tournament with a combined score of 611 (+43) over two days. While shooting 43 strokes over par does not seem great, that was actually 13 strokes better than the second-place Penn State Behrend Lions.
The Lakers were led by junior Corey Marshall, who won the invitational with a two-day total of 148 (+6). As a member of the Oswego State golf team, Marshall has played incredibly well on the course, with his worst score coming in the spring season of his freshman year. Way back in 2017, he shot a 156 (+14), which was good for fourth place. An integral reason for his success at the Oswego Invitational is the fact that the Oswego Country Club is the team’s home course.
“I have played at the course for four years, so I am familiar with the layout,” Marshall said. “[I] know where you can score and where to be careful, not that that always works out. I think we practiced pretty well; I worked on all facets of my game before we played, so I was ready to go.”
In addition to Marshall, two other Lakers finished in the top 10. Senior Sean Paul Owen was just three strokes behind Marshall, at (+9), which was good for second place. Freshman phenom Ryan Fecco finished the weekend tied for seventh at (+13). Perhaps the most impressive statistic coming out of this past weekend was the fact that the Lakers’ A-team worst finish was tied for 18th. This is astonishing, as the entire group of five remained in the top 20 despite facing 11 teams and 50 other golfers. While the Lakers performed extremely well, it should not come as much of a surprise.
“Having home course [advantage] in golf is one of the biggest advantages you can have [in sports] other than maybe a baseball diamond,” Howard said. “These guys play the course every day, multiple times. They know where the trouble is, where they can score. We expected to be towards the top of the leaderboard at our home tournament, but this year’s field was deeper as far as talent goes. Penn State Behrend competed in the NCAA Championship last year. Clarkson [and] SUNY Delhi have a solid group of players, so for us to come out on top, it is extremely satisfying.”
Despite finishing the weekend in second place, Owen had some trouble in at the invitational. On the first day, he was tied for 17th with a score of 81 (+10). The second day was the polar opposite, as he shot one stroke under par, a 70. Owen struggled on his tee shots during day one and was unable to keep the ball in play.
“The first day, I was not hitting shots good. My tee-ball was all over the place. I was pulling it out of bounds,” Owen said. “I think I hit it out of bounds twice that day. [I] took a couple of high numbers. The second day, I came in with a better mindset and just hit the ball better.”
The only player to end the tournament with a better score was Marshall. Because of this, Marshall was the second Laker to win athlete of the week from the Empire 8 Conference. Although Marshall won this accolade, he was extremely humble about it.
“It is nice to get the recognition,” Marshall said. “As for confidence, it doesn’t [really do much to] boost my confidence. It is not a huge award, but it is nice to have. As a golfer, you want to stay level-headed. You do not want to get too confident about your game because it can change pretty quickly from there.”
Marshall is not the only Laker to win the award, as Owen won it earlier in the year. The Lakers are the only golf team in the Empire 8 to have multiple players win the award, something that goes to show how talented this Lakers team is.
“We have five quality golfers out of starting five,” Howard said. “We have some guys that can rotate into that five, which is good. Competition is a positive. It brings out the best in everyone. These guys compete with each other on a daily basis. They have side matches during practice, and that pushes them to be quality golfers.”
The Lakers quality golfers will be put to the test Oct. 13 and 14 at the Nazareth College Invitational, their next tournament. However, going into it, they will have never played there before. That will cause some issues for the Lakers since they do not have any background information on the greens, slopes and where to take some risks.
“We have not played at Monroe Golf Club or Irondequoit Country Club, so that will be a challenge,” Howard said. “We’ll have to take that on and some adversity. We’ll have to hit some good shots not knowing the course, so that will be a good challenge for them.”
Photo by Maria Pericozzi | The Oswegonian
