Tufts Fires 69, Panthers Place Fourth at Duke Nelson tourney

Author: Jeff Martin

The Middlebury Panthers' golf team commenced its fall season this past weekend with a fourth place showing at its very own Duke Nelson Tournament. The team continues its hectic schedule on Wednesday with a round at Skidmore, before heading down to its archenemy's course for the Williams Invitational over the weekend.
The Panthers shot an impressive 308 during last Sunday's round at Ralph Myhre Golf Course, which helped propel them to a fourth-place finish out of 25 in its annual fall tournament. The Williams Ephs took home the first-place trophy with rounds of 308 and an unprecedented 294 on Sunday. The only other teams to best the Panthers' two-round 619 total were Nazereth and Salem State, who tied with a two-day mark of 618. All in all the results were quite positive for the squad. Ryan Simper '03 commented on the team's first tournament, "Fourth place stinks, because we got beat by two teams by one shot each. It is not a terrible start to the season, but we could have done a little better. It's more positive than negative.We beat some good teams, and we got beat by some teams that we maybe we shouldn't have."
Brad Tufts '03 made his presence felt on the first day of competition with a brilliant round of 69. That round tied him in the record books for the best round ever shot during the Duke Nelson Tournament. Tufts overall score was good enough for a third place individual finish, only one shot back of the co-medalists, Brian Williams of Hamilton and Aaron Funk of Williams. Tufts had this to say about his firework display on Saturday, "It was one of the best rounds that I have ever played. I actually thought going into it that no one in the tournament could play our course better than I was at the moment, save maybe Damon [Gacicia]. I had 37-32, with 5 birdies on the back nine, on holes 12, 14, 15, 16 and 18. It's too bad I couldn't put another good score up there on Sunday, but it was a learning experience to have a shot at winning."
The squad also received solid rounds from its other four players last weekend, as Simper finished tenth overall with a combined score of 152, and right behind him was Damon Gacicia '02.5 with a 153. Ryan Birtwell '04 and newcomer Sean Breen '06 from the Delbarton School in New Jersey also got into the weekend action - finishing near the middle of the 123-man event. Rounding out the tournament was Chris Crevelone of Green Mountain College, whose two-day score of 224, including a 118 on Saturday, placed him just 76 shots of the lead.