Oliver White, ’14, shot a career and tournament best 141 over the weekend.
White’s performance helped lead the men’s golf team to a first place tie with NCAC rival Ohio Wesleyan at the Rosencans Maurer Invitational this past weekend.
“I have always believed in myself and I have always been surrounded by family and friends that have believe in me too, so this weekend felt right for me.” White said. “To me it felt like this is how is should be, whereas most of the weekends before this weekend have felt like disappointments to me.”
White is the first Allegheny golfer to break 70 in a single round since 2005.
Last weekend’s tie is the first tournament victory for the Gators this year, and also how they will end their fall season.
They finished in second place four times in tournament play.
Throughout the weekend, Ohio Wesleyan’s freshman phenom Drew O’Connor trailed White closely, with a score of 144 and a second place finish overall.
Ohio Wesleyan was ahead after the first day of play. However, White and his teammates managed to put together a consistent team effort to tie it up on Sunday afternoon.
Senior Patrick Fritz, who got off to a shaky start in the first day of competition with 77 strokes, managed to rally with a score of 73 on day two to finish eleventh overall and boost the Gator’s chances of a win.
“I was most pleased with the fact that we played two good rounds back to back,” said Head Coach Jeff Groff. “Learning to do that week in and week out is the key to a successful season.”
While this was the last tournament of the fall season, the Gators are already looking forward to the spring.
“The team has got to use this weekend as fuel, fuel that should propel us to work hard to keep improving over the off season, so that when the spring season rolls around we will be ready to show everyone what we are all about,” White said.
Similarly, Groff said that it could be just the spark the team needs to make a run in the NCAC come spring.
“Our fall season is over, but hopefully we can use the strong finish as motivation as we prepare for the spring,” said Groff. “The NCAC is getting tougher each year, but we expect to be in the hunt next May.”