The St. Thomas Aquinas Golf team traveled south to Petersburg, Virginia for the Saint Leo University “Griffin Invitational.” The “Griffin” is an annual event held in memory of Griffin Clarke, a former Saint Leo standout player who helped the Lions capture an NCAA National Championship in 2016. The event hosted some of the best teams in the country including Palm Beach Atlantic, St. Leo, Barton, Belmont Abbey and Wingate.
During the first round of play the team had 5 solid rounds of play including a 73 from the steady senior Sean Trapp as well as a 74 from senior Shkelqim Kukaj. Travis Fay and Joe Tammaro both carded rounds of 75 while newcomer Jonathan Kotzen carded a round of 76. After the first round of play, the Spartans team score of 297 left them in a tie for 7th place.
In the second round of play Joe Tammaro fired his career low round with a boget free 68. Trapp and Kukaj stayed hot carding rounds of 73 and 74 respectively while Travis Fay posted another round of 75. Kotzen was able to put up another round of 76 leading to a team score of 290 which moved the Spartans up the leaderboard to a tie for 4th place.
The final round was another solid performance by the team. Leading the way was Travis Fay who was able to card a 2 under par 70. Shkelqim Kukaj was able to fight back after a difficult start to shoot a 1 over 73 while Sean Trapp battled all day for a round of 74. Jonathan Kotzen was able to manage a round of 78 while Joe Tammaro finished at 79. Playing as an individual, freshman Norman Viron played extremely well carding rounds of 77-72-73 in his first ever college tournament.
The team’s final round score of 295 was good for a 5th place finish just 1 shot behind Wingate University. The winning team from Palm Beach Atlantic shot an impressive team score of 12 under par for the event. The Spartans are back in action next weekend at the Post Invitational.