The Longwood men’s golf season came to an end this past weekend as the team finished seventh overall in the Big South Championship hosted by The Patriot at Grand Harbor located in Ninety-Six, S.C.
Big South rival Liberty won the tournament as a team, shooting 16 under par for a 19-stroke victory, finishing above Campbell who shot three over par.
Longwood shot a total score of 31 over par over the course of the three rounds ranging from Friday to Sunday.
“We were really solid for probably 85 to 90 percent of the time that we were down there and we kind of let our guard down and didn’t finish the second round the way we wanted to,” said head coach Kevin Fillman.
Fillman was pleased with the way his team fought at the beginning, but their performance faded as the tournament carried on.
“I think we played pretty hard all day long and just had a couple of adverse situations that affected us in the wrong way coming down the stretch, and we just didn’t finish off that (second) round,” said Fillman.
After the tough closing on the second round, the team responded by shooting their lowest score as a unit for the tournament at 292 after shooting scores of 295 and 305 in the previous days.
“I give a lot of credit to our guys for going out there and doing what they did on Sunday because I think that was a much better indication of where we should have been,” said Fillman.
The Lancers were lead individually by senior Nick Contini who finished tied for 19th, shooting 6 over par for the tournament.
“I think it went pretty well, it probably wasn’t what we wanted because you’re obviously trying to win, but we kind of knew going in that there were two pretty good teams in Campbell and Liberty, so we knew there were slim odds to win,” said Contini.
Contini was the lone senior in the field for the Lancers, and with this being his last tournament there were a wide range of emotions.
“In my last round it was so cool having my parents there and everything,” said Contini. “Mostly just remembering the times you have at tournaments not necessarily with golf, and all your rounds and stuff, but more so just with your teammates and funny stories and stuff like that."
Next year’s team will return six players with three being seniors.
Other scorers for the Lancers were sophomore Brandon Weaver who finished with 21 after firing a three-day total of seven over par. Both junior Jordan Boulton and junior Adam Szwed finished tied for 25th after shooting a three-day total of 11 over par.
Glancing back at this past season, Fillman is confident about the team's ability in bouncing back next year.
“It is what I would call a ‘Richter scale’ year, because we had our ups and we had our downs. I would love to see that level off a little more,” said Fillman. “I do believe because all these different guys we had this year got a lot of experience will help us going forward because they’ve had that experience and know what to expect."
Senior Nick Contini tied finishing 19th and shot 6 over par for the tournament.
