Although The Calusa Cup only featured nine teams, it was still a lineup of many big-time programs. No. 6 Louisiana State, No. 13 UCLA and No. 10 Florida represented some of the best squads in the entire country. Also competing were conference rivals Louisville and Wake Forest, as well as Purdue — winners of the Puerto Rico Classic in February — who are solid as well.
There is no doubt the Cavaliers finished seventh behind some good teams, but the quality of their opponents Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in Naples, Fla. is merely an explanation, not an excuse. The reality of being a top 10 program — currently ranked No. 9 — is that Virginia has already faced, and overcome, tough competition.
Momentum from its last month of relative success has now been halted less than three weeks from the ACC Championships, where the Cavaliers will compete with Louisville and Wake Forest as well as schools like No. 11 Florida State, No. 17 Duke and No. 23 Georgia Tech.
The beginning of the tournament foreshadowed what was to come. In the first round, every single Cavalier finished over par except senior Paul Chang — Virginia stood at eighth place and a whopping 14-over par. The second round was even worse — the team as a whole shot 16-over par, dropping them to last place in the entire tournament, with not a single Cavalier having a total score under par.
They managed to recover a bit in the third, shooting a collective one-over par, but that was still tied for the third-worst score of the round and was only enough to lift the team to seventh in the tournament. Virginia finished 31-over par overall, 13 strokes behind sixth place Louisiana State and only one stroke ahead of Miami (Ohio) and Iowa.
Chang had, by far, the best outing of the tournament among Cavaliers. He shot an even par 72 in the first, a four-over 76 in the second and ended strong with an impressive four-under 68 — his second best round this year — in the third to finish in tenth place overall. Those scores balanced out to give Chang even par for the tournament.
Freshman Maxi Peregger and junior Bryan Lee finished at 33rd and 35th place, respectively. Perreger started solid with a two-over 74 and a top 15 first round ranking, but dropped on the leaderboards after a five-over 77 and a three-over 75 to finish 10-over par overall. Lee had the opposite trajectory — he stumbled out of the gate with an eight-over 80, improved with a three-over 75, then managed to shoot even-par in the third, for 11-over par across all rounds.
Two Cavaliers finished in the bottom five for the tournament. Sophomore Josh Duangmanee and senior Benny Haggin each shot 15-over par and finished tied for 39th. Duangmanee shot a five-over 77, an eight-over 80 and ended the competition with a solid two-over 74. Haggin recorded a seven-over 79 followed by a pair of four-over 76s.
This was a rough tournament for Virginia. If the team performs like this come the ACC Championships and, more importantly, the NCAA Tournament, then they will not get far. However, there are two pieces of silver lining for men’s golf at the moment — first, their overall performance this year suggests this is merely a blip, rather than a pattern, and second, they get a fantastic chance to rebound in their next outing.
Look for the Cavaliers to defend Charlottesville’s very own Birdwood Golf Course for the two-day Lewis Chitengwa Memorial. Tee time is 8:30 a.m. Monday, and entry is free of charge for those who want to catch what should be a fun few days of golf.
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