After a two-week layoff, the young Penn men's golf team will look to continue to improve at the Temple Invitational being held at the Glenmaura National Golf Club in Moosic, Pa., this weekend.
The Quakers have gotten off to a slow start this season. However, after losing three of five starters to graduation, Penn coach Heath Davidson is pleased with the progress his largely inexperienced Quakers have made thus far this season.
"Each week we're looking for improvement," Davidson said. "Now we're looking to improve on what we did two weeks ago."
Two weeks ago, the Quakers finished 12th out of 17 at the James Madison Invitational -- 31 strokes behind first-place Georgetown. Penn was in ninth place after the first day of play before falling back.
Despite the finish, there were some bright spots for Penn. Sophomore Derek Rogers paced the Quakers by shooting a 213 and finishing tied for ninth overall in the tournament. Freshman Patrick Cooper bounced back from a disappointing 55th-place performance in his first collegiate tournament, and placed 15th two weeks ago, two strokes behind Rogers.
The weather was certainly a factor in Penn's first two tournaments. Heavy rains from Hurricane Isabel made for slick playing conditions and frustrated the young Quakers squad, especially in their short games. This weekend's tournament will certainly be a much drier affair, although daytime temperatures in Moosic will be cold, with a predicted high of 54 degrees.
"Expect it to be colder, and very challenging this weekend," Davidson said. "This is one of the hardest courses we'll play this year. It's going to take good striking off the tee and a solid short game."
In addition to the Quakers, Glenmaura will play host to Temple, Saint John's, Saint Joseph's, Maryland and Ivy League rival Princeton. At the James Madison Invitational two weeks ago, Princeton bested the Quakers by 13 strokes, en route to an eighth place finish. Maryland finished in third place at James Madison.
This weekend, the Red and Blue will look to strike back at these teams with a slightly different lineup. Rogers, Cooper, Larry Nickell and Sean Barrett will all play for the Quakers for the third straight tournament, but struggling Scott Squires will be replaced by his brother, Adam Squires, the lone senior on the Penn squad.
Davidson is optimistic that this will prove to be the best tourney yet for his team.
"We're excited to get back out there," Davidson said. "We worked on a lot of things in practice over the past two weeks, especially in our short game, and we're hitting the ball as well as we have all year."
