Easter weekend is supposed to be golf heaven. But not even Jim Nantz would have been able to wax poetic had he seen the conditions on the links at the Hampton Inn Classic on Saturday.
"Worst conditions I've played in my whole life," said sophomore Luke Heffernan, who shot a 42 on Saturday's front nine.
Play was shortened to nine holes on Saturday due to the inclement weather, and after all the dust, rain and wind had settled, the Jumbos found themselves in fifth place out of 14 teams -- their best finish in a field that big since 2006.
Trinity dominated the tournament, which was played at Umass Dartmouth on April 10-11. The Bantams' top four scorers over 27 holes were 13 strokes better than the next closest competitor, a difference larger than that between second-place Nichols and the fifth-place Jumbos. Worcester State sophomore Bob Bruso won the individual medal for the second straight week. While the field finished 13 holes on Saturday, only the first nine were counted.
"It's hard to believe we played nine," Heffernan said. "By the fourth hole, it started to rain, and by the fifth, it was really pouring. The problem was that it was so cold, windy and freaking raining -- it was brutal -- that my hands were so cold I couldn't putt. I had very little feeling in my fingers. Not really enjoyable."
"[They were] the worst conditions I've ever played in," senior co-captain Benjie Moll said, reiterating Heffernan's sentiments. "The people at UMass Dartmouth were out of their minds letting us play in those conditions."
Nevertheless, poor conditions are an equal-opportunity offender, and the Jumbos weren't alone in their struggles. In fact, the Jumbos had picked up three strokes on their closest competitor, Salem State, when play was stopped. Moll shot a 43 on Saturday's front nine, an improvement on his 89 from Friday.
"All the parts were really coming together," Moll said. "Had we been allowed to play the last nine, I think we would've improved. I just started to relax, and [junior Caleb Shapiro] started to hit his stride. I'm hoping he'll be a big contributor now that he has tournament experience under his belt. We were the only people who wanted to finish because we knew everybody else's scores were getting worse.
"I hit the ball lower and I use longer clubs, so the wind and rain was kind of advantageous to my game because I keep the ball low," he continued. "I tend to hit knockdown shots, which is the reason I was getting hot while everyone else was doing worse."
Shapiro's 45 outdid his 94 on Friday, which was not counted in the team's score. Sophomore Dan Moll had the lowest score of any Jumbo over the rain-shortened weekend, coming in with a 42 on Saturday and a 76 on Friday to put him 10 strokes over par and tie him for fifth in the individual standings.
"I was putting really well," he said. "I was getting up and down and greens were tough, but I didn't have too much trouble with them."
The older Moll went on to credit coach Bob Sheldon for the team's performance Saturday.
"Coach was unbelievable, walking us through the rain, helping us calm down," he said. "The team really appreciated his dedication. He was one of the only coaches willing to go out there in the middle of the rain."
The Jumbos were coming off a 12th place finish out of 14 teams in the Babson Golf Spring Opener, and they showed significant improvement on Friday as the team's score of 326 (+26) was eight strokes better than the Jumbos shot on either round the previous week.
"The conditions on Friday weren't too bad," Heffernan said. "It was windy. The greens were not slow but not fast. They were a little untrue to me -- a little bumpy. I couldn't get anything in the hole."
But Tufts demonstrated depth past Heffernan and the Molls as they hadn't the previous week. While Shapiro stepped up on Saturday, junior Alex Mitropoulos shot a round of 82 on Friday in his second tournament since returning from a semester abroad.
"It was nice to be back on the course," Mitropoulos said. "Everything was going right. I was making putts and my drives were straight and landing in the fairway. I just think the more experience you get, you'll start to see improvement each week, and we're going to keep building upon that."
Mitropoulos and the Jumbos will have the chance to do so Thursday at the Western New England Invitational in Springfield, where they finished eighth in a 10-team field last year.
"The weather is looking pretty good, and we played in that tournament last year, and it's not a bad course," Heffernan said. "We didn't play particularly well last year, so we're looking to improve, but there are some good teams out there. You want to finish as high as you can, obviously, but realistically, due to our ... lack of experience our players have, it's hard to beat a team like Salem State or Trinity. Those are teams that are competing or will compete in Nationals. This week, our four and five guys did well enough for us to finish fifth. As our second half of the lineup gains more experience, their scores will inevitably be lower, and we'll go into tournaments with more confidence."
