Over spring break, Emory’s golf team defended its UAA title and placed ninth in another tournament. The Eagles finished in ninth place in their first tournament, the Callaway Gardens Intercollegiate in Pine Mountain, Ga., and then defeated the University of Rochester (N.Y.) to win the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship in their second match-up.
Emory first played at the Callaway Gardens Intercollegiate on March 7 to 8. The tournament was played on the Mountain View Golf Course, which was 36-holes, par-72 and a total of 7,016 yards. The Eagles finished in a decent ninth place out of the 17 entries.
The team was led by a pair of freshman, Stefano Butti and Connor Yakubov. Butti finished as the highest ranked scorer for the team, shooting a 149 (74-75). The score was good enough to tie him for sixteenth place out of 96 entries in the tournament. Yakubov was Emory’s second highest scorer, finishing with a score of 153, which was good enough to tie for 35th in the field.
Then, over the second weekend of the break, the golf team built on their earlier performance in Pine Mountain to win the 2016 UAA Championship with a win against Rochester. This year, the tournament took place at the Redtail Golf Course in Sorrento, Fl. The course was a par-72 and was a total of 6,775 yards. The tournament style was match play. Out of the six total match-ups, Emory won four to secure their victory. That is, six Emory golfers faced off against six Rochester golfers in a head to head match-up, with each match-up contributing a point to the winning team’s total.
Butti, sophomore Keenan Hickton, and freshmen Noah Apter and Anthony Muscato all managed to top their Rochester opponents to score points for Emory. Yakubov and senior Jonathan Gerrard competed well, but ultimately were unable to defeat their opponents.
The victory over Rochester represented Emory’s second straight UAA title.
The team will compete next at the Oglethorpe Spring Invitational at Jekyll Island, Ga. starting on Friday, March 18 until Sunday, March 20.
Avery Yang is a College sophomore from Los Angeles, California, by way of New York City.
