BAYONNE – Bennett Espenshade shot a final-round 3-under par to finish tied for fourth individually at 7-under to lead the Rutgers men’s golf team at the inaugural New York Harbor Cup at Bayonne Golf Club.
The Scarlet Knights finished in fifth place, out of nine teams, with a -6 for the three-day tournament. Kansas topped the field with a team total of -25 for the tournament, and fellow Big Ten school Purdue finished with a -23 to secure second place. Little Rock and Michigan State finished tied for third in Bayonne with identical 11-under-par team scores. Marquette (tied sixth), South Florida (tied sixth), West Virginia (eighth), and Nebraska (ninth) rounded out the team standings.
Rutgers started the tournament in a tie for third; however, a 4-over-par team score in the second round dropped the Scarlet Knights back three spots to sixth. Rutgers rebounded in the final round, shooting 3-under, to move back up the leaderboard one place to finish in fifth. The Scarlet Knights’ final round score was the second-best score of the round, trailing only Michigan State’s tournament-best 6-under.
Tournament champion Kansas ended their day with a 3-under of their own to fend off the Boilermakers, who shot a 2-under final round. Michigan State’s -6 helped to pull them into a tie for third with Little Rock after the Trojans ended their final round with a 6-over team score.
Individually, Espenshade was the only Scarlet Knight to score under par every round. He opened his tournament with a -3, carded a -1 in the second round, and ended the third round at 3-under for his -7 for the tournament.
“I had a new putter in the bag this week and putted great, so that was fantastic,” Espenshade said. “I felt like I had really good command of my golf ball and left it in the right spots — that made life pretty easy for myself.”
Espenshade added, “My favorite shot of the tournament has got to be today on No. 8. I had some demons left over from yesterday — I hit a bad one on that hole in round two — and then today I hit a great one from almost in Narnia, about 30 feet, and ended up making birdie. That really solidified my standing in the round, and I felt pretty good about that.”
Behind Espenshade, T.J. Thomas, Argyle Downes, and Lucas Politano were Rutgers’ top individual finishers. Thompson finished tied for 23rd with a +2, Downes finished tied for 27th with a +4, and Politano finished tied for 30th with a +5.
Overall, Espenshade’s 7-under put him in a tie for fourth with Marquette’s Ryan Banas. The pair finished two strokes behind Kansas’ Nicolas Vidal Reig in third with a -9 and five behind tournament co-champions Arthur Carlier, from Kansas, and Jenson Forrester, from Purdue, who each finished the tournament at 12-under.
The Rutgers men’s golf team will be back in action from Sept. 13-15 when they travel to Muskoka, Ontario to compete in the Canadian Collegiate. The Scarlet Knights will next be back in the Garden State next April when they host the Rutgers Invitational in Bedminster on the 17th and 18th and when they host the Big Ten Championships at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield from April 30 to May 2.
