Golf gets into the swing at Seton Hall

The Quakers opened their fall season with a sixth place finish. The Penn men's golf team began its fall season as the defending Ivy champs with an impressive sixth-place finish at the Seton Hall Invitational. A 36-hole event played on the difficult links of the Metedeconk National Golf Club -- New Jersey's fourth best rated course -- the Quakers positioned themselves well for the fall season. "For our first tournament, I am quite pleased with our finish," Penn coach Francis Vaughn said. "I am really happy [that] sophomore Kyle Moran and sophomore Kieran Doherty stepped-up in the absence of Penn golf graduates Adam Bradshaw and Christoph Kyrle." The host Pirates won the tournament by a whopping eight shots, playing the two rounds in just 604 shots. Penn State was second at 612, followed by Rutgers (617) and Navy (618). Penn's only Ivy competitor, Princeton, finished 10th overall with a score of 635. Mike Costigan, from Seton Hall, posted the top individual score with rounds of 76 and 72, while Georgetown's Greg Koush and Rutgers' Kevin Campana tied for second at 149. Also noteworthy was the play of Doherty. He returned to West Philly well seasoned after having qualified for and competed in the 98th U.S. Amateur Championship at the Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, NY., as the medalist for the entire state of Connecticut. He shot rounds of 68 and 74 in the 36 hole local qualifier at the Round Hill CC. In the process, Doherty beat out defending Western Athletic Conference champion J.J. Henry, who also qualified, and eventually defeated U.S. Amateur medalist Joel Kribel in the first round of match play. Doherty posted rounds of 79 and 76 at Seton Hall, tying him for 17th with a 155 two round total. "He came to school ready to play and it really showed in his first ever college tournament," Vaughn said. Also competing for the Quakers were sophomore Kyle Moran -- who led the squad with rounds of 79 and 73, tying for seventh overall in the field -- and senior captain Brian Owens, who shot 76-80. Owens, who returned from an injury last spring, competed in his first tournament since the fall of 1997. Even with the long dry spell, his birdie on the first hole continued a streak of five straight tournaments where he birdied the first hole. Finishing sixth-of-15 teams doesn't have the same ring to it that last spring's Ivy title did, but the Quakers were optimistic about their season after playing against a first-rate field. "It was the best field we have played against since I have been here. All of the top 10 teams from last year's final rankings from within District II were there". Penn aims to work on its game next weekend as it travels to the Georgetown Invitational.