The Newport National Golf Club was not very forgiving to the men's golf team over the past two days at the highly-touted Adams Cup of Newport, hosted by University of Rhode Island. But Head Coach Michael Hughes said he was still pleased with the team's effort.
"It's one of the strongest fields in college golf," Hughes said. The tournament included four of the top 20 nationally-ranked teams. "We'll be really competitive (at) Ivies because of tournaments like this. The team responded well and I'm impressed with their resiliency."
After pulling off a thrilling third-place finish at the Rehoboth Invitational in Delaware last Monday with only four players, the Bears fell to 16th place after their final hole in Newport, six strokes behind their closest competitors, United States Naval Academy and University of Connecticut.
Leading Bruno was Michael Amato '11, who shot 78-78-77 to finish 53rd overall at 233.
"Our team has shown steady improvement and I'm just glad I contributed," Amato said. "The conditions were tough, it was windy, cold ... and it's definitely the toughest course we've played so far."
Hughes praised Amato's play on a tricky course.
"He's the most fundamentally sound, and we have great hopes for the spring with him," Hughes said. "We're stepping up to the big leagues."
John Giannuzzi '10 placed 57th individually, close behind Amato with a 234. He also shared the team's single-day low score of 76 with co-captain Chris Hoffman '09, who finished at 241. Conor Malloy '09, the team's other co-captain, also finished with a 241.
First place went to No. 9 Texas A&M, at eight under par, holding a 13-stroke lead over second-place Minnesota.
"Our scores are going to come around after playing against teams of that magnitude," Hughes said.
A highlight for the Bears, Hughes said, was shooting a team score of 309 on the final day, beating four of the teams in the field. Also, the debut of Joe Rued '09, who was asked to join the team after Donald Kim '12 had to pull out indefinitely because of an injured hand, gave the team a good preview of another potential low-scorer. A former baseball player for Brown, Rued shot a 249, with a 79 on his final day.
Rued has been "a recreational golfer for the last three-and-a-half years, so the step up to (Division I) golf is huge," Hughes said. "I think he'll be a solid contributor."
"If we can lower our scores to the low 70's and not have to take a score in the 80's, that will be a huge improvement from last year," Amato said. He also cited Hughes as being instrumental in "leading us in the right direction" as the new head coach this year.
Brown will be traveling to New York in three weeks to play in the ECAC Championship, Oct. 11 to 12, at the Long Island National course.
