Sept. 27, 2009
WASHINGTON - When the Georgetown University men's golf team hits the links this weekend, senior Vincenzo Salina (Vandoeuvres, Switzerland/Institut Florimont) will be looking for some redemption for his team.
After starting the season in early September with a 13th place showing at the Maryland Intercollegiate, Salina and his teammates will play in the John Dallio Memorial on Sunday and Monday. The Hoyas finished in fourth place last year, and then-freshman Brian Dorfman (Greenwood Village, Colo./Cherry Creek) took home individual honors.
"For the past two years, we have opened our fall season at Maryland and it is always a great tournament for us because the field at the event is so strong," Salina said. "It is motivating when you know you are going to compete with those teams, furthermore if you know you have a shot at beating a couple of those schools.
"We played on the same course as last year, River Marsh, but it was playing in very different conditions: the course was soaked, greens marked considerably, and the wind was gusting which made some holes very challenging. If we look at the overall result, we finished 13th and our scoring average was around 300. This performance was disappointing because we know we are worth much better than that. The reasons of our mediocre performance I believe have to be attributed to our poor management of damage; we threw out high scores on some holes when we were in trouble, those are tough mentally and affect your scorecard."
After returning back to campus, Salina, one of the team's captains, had a chance to meet with Head Coach Tommy Hunter and reorganize before taking the links again. Salina hopes that the addition of new golfers to the lineup - sophomore junior Brandon Ellis (Westerville, Ohio/St. Francis de Sales), senior Don Thomas (Murrysville, Pa./Franklin Regional) and freshman Brad Cadigan (South Weymouth, Mass./Boston College Prep).- will give the Hoyas they boost they need.
"Don is an experienced player and had just missed out on the Maryland losing a one on one qualifier to Brandon and he had separated himself from the rest of the guys," Salina said. "Brad came through after an additional two day qualifier. We are excited to have Don in the lineup again especially after all he has been through. We are equally excited to have Brad. He is a freshman and it is going to be a new experience for him. We have seen him play for the past three weeks and we are excited to see him compete. I believe he could be a great asset for the future of this program."
The team's performance in finishing fourth last year has Salina excited as well. "Our performance last year was one of high quality," he said. "Brian played some great golf and the team played beautifully for two first rounds, we were leading by a couple of shots going into the final round.
"Unfortunately we had a little hiccup on the final round and finished a couple of shots off the lead. Overall it was a good performance even if we had great opportunity to win. I believe our performance last year showed us that we could do something good on that course; this is something positive we will have in our minds. On the other hand every tournament is different, and the only thing we can do is give our 100 percent on every shot."
Salina hopes that a strong performance in the DePaul tournament will be a sign of good things to come for the Hoyas.
"The long-term goal in our season is to qualify for regionals, an achievement that has not been done in a long time," Salina said. "The two ways to be eligible to play in the regionals is by national ranking or by winning the Big East championship.
"Therefore our focus all along the fall and the spring will be to post good results to improve our ranking. Finally at the end of the spring season we have the main event of the season, the Big East Championship, which we have been preparing for all season for. It is a great event, on a quality course with a strong field, in which it is always exciting to compete in."
