Men's Golf Heads to Steelwood Collegiate

The Knights return to the site of their best finish in '25-'26, a 2nd Place behind Texas A&M. This is also the 5th time in the last 6 years Rutgers has been entered

This year's edition features 3 Top 20 teams in #3 Auburn, #12 and defending Champ A&M, and #13 Georgia Tech.

Rutgers comes in at #47, the 6th highest ranked right behind #45 Memphis and #46 Mississippi State. Other entered in the 15 team field include #74 Kansas State, #87 Rice, #94 Virginia, #108 Va Tech, along with the B1G's #88 Maryland and #182 Nebraska

Rutgers will go with a lineup of

Jr Bennett Espenshade
Jr Argyle Downes
So Lucas Politano
Sr TJ Thompson
Fr Carlo Melgrati

Espenshade is currently the #32 ranked golfer out of over 2,000 who play in D1 and comes in as the5th highest ranked in the field. Downes is next for the Knights at #212.

The teams will play 36 holes Saturday with a final 18 Sunday.

It looks like weather could be an issue Sunday just like what happened at this event last year. Rain on and off is predicted from overnight thru the day.

If so it would behove the team to get off to a good start Saturday.

After 2 Rounds the Knights are 8th of 15 after shooting 7 Under 281 in Round 1 and 5 Under 283 in Round 2.

Carlo Melgrati (72-69) and Argyle Downes (70-71) led RU at 3 Under. TJ Thompson is 2 Under, Bennett Espenshade 1 Under and Lucas Politano 1 Over.

The team was as high as 5th but lost a few strokes at the end. If the Final makes it thru the expected rain they are close enough to move up a few spots.

Top 10 Teams

1. #3 Auburn...................-35
2. #13 Georgia Tech.....-23
T3. #12 Texas A&M......-19
T3. #46 Mississippi St
5.#108 Virginia Tech....-16
6. #94 Virginia................-14
7. #74 Kansas State......-13
8. #47 RUTGERS.............-12
9. #88 Maryland.............-10
10. #142 Kenessaw St....-7

At 3 Under #45 Memphis is T11 and #182 Nebraska is 15th at 19 Over

Ga Tech's Albert Hanssen and Kansas St's Oliver Toyer hold a 1 stroke lead Individually at 12 Under.

Weather permitting the Knights will be paired with Maryland and Kansas State in Round 3.

Avoiding thunderstorms. in Today's Final Round, Rutgers once again, as they have in all 6 Fall Tourneys, moved up the leaderboard in the final round. This time from 8th to T4th while making up 7 strokes with a 7 Under 281 to earn a tie with #46 Mississippi State at 19 Under Par.

NY Harbor Cup from 6th to 5th
Canadian Collegiate from 6th to T5th
Gopher Inv from 6th to 3rd
Hampton Collegiate from 4th to 2nd
Quail Valley from 10th to 6th
Steelwood from 8th to T4th.

7 Under tied for the 4th best round today.

For the 2nd tourney in a row, Soph Lucas Politano led the way in the final round with a 4 Under 68. He was joined by Argyle Downes with a 69. A key hole was the Par 5 9th where both scored Eagle 3's. Downes (-6) was the Knights highest finisher at T11, a 3rd good finish in a row. Bennett Espenshade shot 70, TJ Thompson who contributed a 67 in Round 1, shot 74. Frosh Carlo Melgrati who contributed a 69 in the 2nd Round shot 77. A total team effort.

Top 5 Teams

1. #3 Auburn..........................-42
2. #13 Georgia Tech............-40
3. #12 Texas A&M...............-30
T4. #47 RUTGERS................-19
T4. #46 Mississippi State

#45 Memphis (+2) finished T11. The B1G's Maryland (-8) finished 10th and Nebraska (+20) 15th.

Georgia Tech's Albert Hansson won the Individual Title by 6 strokes over Texas A&M's Aaron Pounds.

The team is off now till March 7 when they head to the Colleton River Collegiate in Bluffton, SC as they work toward their first NCAA bid since 2005.

Ther should be at least 1 more D1 rankings this month.

Team had a good fall and set the table up for big things in the spring.

bigmatt718 said:

Team had a good fall and set the table up for big things in the spring.

Click to expand...

In the past they would start off in early February in Puerto Rico. The original schedule had them starting there again but was removed when they added the prestigeous Ford Collegiate in April with a field that includes Auburn, Texas, Ga Tech, LSU, Georgia, Wake Forest, Vandy, and Notre Dame. That's quite a list.

To make the NCAA's you not only need a good ranking but also a winning record against all competition. Clemson and Washington missed recently because of that despite rankings in the 40's.

RU is currently 51-19-2.