Men’s golf finishes fifth at Titan Winter Invitational

By Rai Masuda

The Flagler College men’s golf team kicked off the 2007 spring season with a fifth place finish in the Titan Winter Invitational.

The tournament was held at the Sun Tree Country Club in Melbourne, Fla., and featured some strong play from the team’s underclassmen. The Saints posted a three-round, 72-hole, 889 that left them two strokes behind host Florida Tech.

Head coach Don Robbins was extremely happy with the play of his younger golfers. Flagler freshman Steven Davis, Erik Downs and Andrew Pressentin all posted solid tournament scores.

“Having a sophomore and two freshmen finish in the top twelve in a tough field like that, we were very pleased with that,” Robbins said.

“It’s important to start the season off well, because that’s an indicator to how you are going to play for the rest of the season,” said sophomore Dustin Furnari, who led the Saints with an individual fourth place finish. Furnari played in the final group and was one of the players to shoot the lowest score in a round, an impressive second round 67 (-5).

The Saints are in the midst of an extended break and do not hit the course again until the March 4-6 Panther Invitational at the Duran Golf Club in Viera, Fla. Robbins does not think that the layoff will affect the team.

“Our normal practice schedule is Mondays we go to St. Johns locally, Tuesdays and Thursdays we’ve been going to Palencia, and Fridays we go to Marsh Creek and those are three really good golf courses,” he said.

Led by senior All-American Ian Hoffman, Robbins expects Flagler’s top five golfers to be extremely competitive in March’s tournament.