The Orange and Blue men’s golf team traveled to Lorton, Va. to participate in the two-day, 54-hole George Mason Patriot Intercollegiate over Sept. 25-26. Overall, the Bison secured a tie for 16th place out of the 19-team competition, with an impressive final round coming from J.P. Raftery ’19.

On the first two rounds of play on Sept. 25, the Bison recorded marks of 307 and 291 to temporarily hold 15th place. Ashton Radvansky ’19 was unable to complete his final round due to darkness. Raftery was the Bison-to-beat after the first round, finishing at two over par.

Peter Bradbeer ’20, who made a starting appearance for the first time in his collegiate career, recorded an 80 his first round, followed up by a one-under 70. Other impressive performances came from Connor O’Brien ’19 and Jubal Early ’19, who finished the first two rounds with 148 and 159, respectively.

“One thing that our team needs to improve on is the consistency of our scores, and I feel that we can best do this by keeping it in play more off of the tee and by improving our putting.” Radvansky said. “If we begin to get off to better starts, instead of having to rely on our comeback rounds in the afternoon, then we will start contending for titles,” Radvansky said.

The second day of competition proved to be successful for Raftery, as he finished with an even-par mark of 71. He individually tied for ninth, and helped lead the Bison to their 16th-place finish. Bradbeer closed with a 74 on the final 18 holes, while Early, Radvansky, and O’Brien tallied scores of 76, 83, and 84, respectively.

“It is very important, particularly for our younger guys, for our program to measure itself against programs that are ranked near the top of the national rankings,” D.J. Magee ’17 said. “Our team will continue to work hard to build on our good play at George Mason so that we might enjoy success both this fall season and during the spring as we build toward our ultimate goal of winning the Patriot League Championship this April,” D.J. Magee ’17 said.

The Orange and Blue boasted a roster of four sophomores and one first-year to tally a team score of 902 and tie with La Salle and Binghamton. Old Dominion took the title with a team score of 849.

“We were able to compete in our strongest field yet, and we were able to play an amazing course. It was incredible to be able to play a collegiate tournament on a course which held the 88th (2013) U.S. Public Links Championship. The course was difficult, and we struggled as a team, but the experience was invaluable,” Radvansky said. 

The Bison will return to play on Oct. 2 to compete at the two-day Matthews Auto Collegiate Invitational in Apalachin, N.Y.