Georgetown University fell short of hopes at the Navy Invitational Tournament Sept. 21 and 22, finishing 8th out of 15 teams. Despite the result, Georgetown found a silver lining in rising star first-year CJ Winchenbaugh, who excelled in his second collegiate event.
The Hoyas went into the tournament with high expectations of a podium finish; the two-day, three-round tournament combined the top four individual scores from each round to determine the total team score.
The Hoyas finished with a score of 851 across the 54 holes. They had rounds of 297, 294 and 294 respectively.
Winchenbaugh led the team, finishing 2-over par with rounds of 73, 70 and 72, which was strong enough to earn him 12th place overall in the tournament.
Also with a top-25 finish was co-captain Hutter, who had scores of 76, 70 and 73, finishing in 23rd place and 6-over par through three rounds.
First-year Alan Rose started out with two scores of 78, but was able to improve during the last round and earned a score of 72, which put him 15 over par and earned him a top-50 finish. Senior Conner Willett and sophomore Barnes Blake completed the scoring for the Hoyas, finishing through three rounds at 16-over and 17-over respectively.
Winchenbaugh said he used his 29th-place showing in the Hoyas’ first event of the season, the Howard/USF Intercollegiate, as fuel for his performance at the Navy Invitational.
“I don’t really know what was going on in the first event, but I just didn’t really ‘be me,’” Winchenbaugh told The Hoya. “It’s tough to say you want to win or top 10 in your first college event as a freshman, but I was playing good golf coming into school, and so I was a little disappointed, and I kind of used it as a little fuel for this week, and I played a lot better.”
Winchenbaugh said he hopes to improve over the season.
“You come in 12th in a good field, but you still want more, so I was happy with how the week went,” Winchenbaugh said. “You’re still always chasing for something more.”
Although the team fell short of their goal, Head Coach Tommy Hunter said he was pleased with the performances of Winchenbaugh and co-captain senior Max Hutter.
“Very honored to play at the U.S. Naval Academy,” Hunter told The Hoya. “Very pleased with our freshman, CJ Winchenbaugh; it was his second intercollegiate tournament, and played very well. Also pleased with Max Hutter. Our co-captain had a mediocre opening round, but then followed it up with two solid rounds of golf. So I was pleased with their two performances.”
Hunter said he was happy to see how the team improved as the tournament went on despite playing on a difficult course.
“The golf course has moved into the top-15 in the state of Maryland,” Hunter told Georgetown Athletics. “It’s very difficult with firm and fast conditions paired with severe elevation changes. We came up short with our aspirations of a top-5 finish, yet we improved over the 54 holes of competition.”
The Hoyas will compete next at the Hamptons Intercollegiate Tournament at the Maidstone Club in East Hampton, N.Y. on Monday, Oct. 7.