Men’s golf finishes eighth in first tournament

The Lehigh men’s golf team traveled to Colgate’s Seven Oaks Golf Club for its season opener on Sept. 4. The team had high energy on Sunday after tying with Colgate in last season’s Patriot League Championship. 

Lehigh shot three under par 285, the second-lowest score of the day to move up to eighth place out of 14 teams and to finish with a final total of 878 (298, 295, 285).

Junior Edmund Broderick said the team is excited about both the season opener and the season as a whole. 

The team has only expanded since last year, as none of the members were graduating seniors. Broderick said the incoming class of freshmen shows promise to expand the team’s performance. 

“We think we have a really solid squad and we’re looking forward to getting the ball rolling,” Broderick said. “There’s a belief that each of us individually can go out and win an event any given week.” 

Broderick said coming in with the belief that the team can win not only as individuals but as a whole will allow them to reach their full potential this year.

 Coach Henry D’Alberto said this is the deepest team they’ve had in a long time. He said he planned to use this match to see what players need to work on while also hoping for a successful outcome for the team. 

“I think this is going to give the freshmen some experience and the guys like David (Hurly) a tournament under their belt,” D’Alberto said before the tournament. “It’s just seeing where everyone is this week.”

D’Alberto said he typically reminds his golfers of three things: make good decisions, commit to every shot and do not compound errors. He told the team to follow these three pieces of advice at Colgate last weekend.

Sophomore Aidan Oehrle said he was optimistic about this match and how the team would perform. 

“I am more confident as a player and a person,” Oehrle said. “I feel like I have figured myself out more both on the golf course and off. I am more comfortable with my game, I make smarter choices and experience is going to help a lot.”

Oehrle said he wanted to have fun during the match and enjoy his time on the course while also learning and getting better as a player. 

He said coming together as a team to talk about what they can fix played a large part in growing and realizing the team’s full potential.

The Mountain Hawks had three players shoot even par or better in Sunday’s final round. Oehrle was the top performer on Sunday with a round of three under par 69. Broderick was Lehigh’s top performer, tying for 18th place with 218 (73-71-74).