After a historically successful campaign last season, Virginia men’s golf has been put under the microscope more than any other instance for the program in recent memory. Thankfully, the Cavaliers were in a hurry to make very clear their winning intentions this year, as the team took home a season-opening victory Tuesday at the Inverness Intercollegiate in Toledo, Ohio. A troublesome first round made way for dominant passages of play in the final three rounds, which solidified a comprehensive four-stroke win over some of the nation’s premier programs.
The first round saw junior Ben James make an early move with a one-under 68. Tough conditions, however, left the rest of the Cavaliers’ lineup grasping for answers as junior Bryan Lee entered the clubhouse at two over par, sophomore Josh Duangmanee at one over and seniors Deven Patel and Paul Chang posting a 73 and 75 respectively.
At the end of the day, Virginia found itself nestled into seventh place on the team leaderboard behind Auburn, Southern Methodist, Texas Tech, Vanderbilt, College of Charleston and Oklahoma. With the caliber of programs above them, the Cavaliers needed to make up a lot of ground during the second round to have any grand aspirations of scraping together a win.
Virginia made the move it so desperately needed, climbing up to fourth place by the end of play on the back of a tremendous 64 by Lee and a second 68 for James. Chang clawed back from what was an erroneous first round to fire a one-over 70. Virginia’s rise was perhaps only stifled by setbacks from Patel and Duangmanee, who shot 74 and 72. Still, the Cavaliers had the field right where they wanted them to attack the remaining unscathed teams on the final day.
No squad was up to the task of matching the Cavaliers Tuesday as they put up their best team score over the three-day period, an aggressive 270. Three players found themselves under par. Most notably, both James and Chang carded a 66, good for three under and bolstering what appeared to be a winning performance for Virginia. Perhaps the most glaring reason for the Cavaliers’ seizure of first place was the consistency exhibited by the likes of Duangmanee, Patel and Lee. All three hovered around par, and that was more than enough to get the squad over the line.
Aside from the impressive early composure and late assault displayed on the team side of things, the Cavaliers also used the individual competition to assess newfound talent. Freshman Maxi Puregger, hailing from Madrid, Spain, competed as the lone individual for the Cavaliers and his performance proved volatile. After shooting a five-over 74 in each of his first two rounds, Puregger did well to at least partially recover with a final-round 70. A lot is in store for the freshman, and this week certainly offered some valuable lessons.
Virginia entered the event as the fourth-ranked program in the country as a part of Golfweek’s preseason rankings, and the week’s result certainly gave credence to the team’s standing. It is sure to be a long season with trials and tribulations at some stage, but for the Cavaliers, things have gotten off to just the start that they would have been hoping for heading into the fall campaign.
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