Golf second-best to North Texas

By Paul Fitzgerald     2/25/10 6:00pm

The golf team's plans for a second-consecutive victory were thwarted by the weather-induced cancellation of the third round of the JL Lewis Intercollegiate, leading to the team's second-place finish at the event. A poor first round was followed by a terrific comeback in the second round, but tournament organizers prevented the Owls from rising to the top of the leaderboard. Rice opened the JL Lewis Intercollegiate, held at Bandit Golf Course and hosted by Texas State University, by firing a cumulative score of 304 (+20). Despite the high score, the Owls still ended the round in a tie for third place.

Senior Michael Buttacavoli felt the team might have begun play a bit overconfident, leading to the high score.

"Coming off our second victory of the year, we were really excited to try to make it two in a row," Buttacavoli said. "I think we might have come out a bit too excited though, and it affected our play in the first round."

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Junior Michael Whitehead led the Owls with an opening-round 72 (+1), while senior Christopher Brown, fresh off his individual title at the Rice Intercollegiate, posted a first-round 74 (+2). Brown would fire a second-round 75 to finish in a tie for 13th. While Rice was in third place after the first round, the University of North Texas' 290 put the Owls 14 shots back.

With the understanding that the cancellation of the third round was a possibility due to the approaching winter storm, the Owls put up the best score of the tournament in the second round, shooting a cumulative second-round score of 288 (+4) to make up seven shots on North Texas, who would take the tournament's team title with 585 (+17).

While Head Coach Drew Scott (Wiess '98) was disappointed that the third round was cancelled, he refused to make excuses.

"Obviously, if you're in that position you want to keep playing and have the chance to make up shots," Scott said. "But the fact is North Texas played better than us, and hopefully it drives the guys to come out to play on the first hole, not the 19th."

Buttacavoli shook off a poor start to the round to fire a 69 (-2) in the second round, highlighted by his four consecutive birdies in the middle of the round. Buttacavoli's two-round score of 145 left him in a tie for third place, three shots back of Peter Fallon of North Texas, who took the event's individual title.

Bandit Golf Course proved to be difficult for all the teams involved. Houston Baptist University's Mark Slater shot a rarely-seen 100 (+21), a score that was indicative of the difficulty of the course.

"Once your ball got rolling in the fairway, it was not going to stop, so a lot of balls ended up in sand traps and water hazards," Buttacavoli said. "Even when you did hit the green, the ball was bouncing like crazy, and it was hard to get it close."

Despite the difficult conditions, freshman Jade Scott shot a second-round 70 to help lead Rice's comeback. Whitehead followed his first-round performance with a 74 (+3), leaving him in a tie for fifth place. The junior also placed in the top five at the Rice Intercollegiate.

Scott was impressed with his team's play on the challenging course.

"It was very windy and chilly on Monday, and the golf course was designed for a south wind, so when you have the exact opposite direction, it makes it more difficult," Scott said. "For them to shoot the scores they did in the second round was fantastic, but that's a testament to how [physically] strong and mentally strong of a team we are."

While the team was certainly disappointed to have the opportunity to win the tournament taken away, they must now turn their focus to the upcoming Border Olympics in Laredo, Texas. The Owls finished 13th at last year's event, but the squad has an entirely different mentality for this year's go-round.

"We have obviously played well, but we need to prove ourselves," Buttacavoli said. "With top teams like Baylor [University] and [the University of] Arkansas at Border, we have an opportunity to beat some teams ahead of us, and that's always a great feeling.

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