Manhattan College golf will look to their three senior captains Chris Calabro, Jonathan Feuer and Paul Toohey to right the fall part of their season’s inconsistencies.
“A key theme I think is the three seniors who should carry a little of their experience over their four years of playing through college golf,” Head Coach Jerry Wood said. “That will help the team at the right time with it. And show some leadership both in scoring and just basically around the golf course with course management.”
Placing sixth out of 15 teams with a one-under 70 score from sophomore Michael Giannico at the Dowling Shootout; second at the Jasper Shootout with a 74 from Calabro, five-over 75 for Giannico and 77 from Toohey and 13th at St. Barnabas Intercollegiate with two 78 scores from Giannico and Calabro with a four-over 76. And to kick off the spring, MC placed 15out of 16 teams at the Wildcat Invitational behind Calabro who shot a 73, Toohey with 78 and Giannico 79.
Although some of the players on the team put up solid numbers, it wasn’t and isn’t enough to contend with their MAAC conference rivals.
The seniors acknowledge it can only start with their individual leadership. And that it’s also about learning to deal with both the mental and physical sides of golf.
“Now we’re getting more on both a mental and physical discipline and more on the right track, which definitely will help us take down some opponents in the future,” Toohey said.
Each senior talked about how they need to keep in mind Wood’s motto: “Stay in the moment.”
One thing in MC’s favor this year as opposed to years past is the absence of Loyola (Md.) from the MAAC.
“It’s a big help for us. Their team is on a different level,” Toohey said. “We’ve got guys that can put up their numbers. But they’re putting those low numbers up every time. So with Loyola gone and Iona and St. Peter’s having lost a couple of key players, the MAAC is not wide open, but it made it so much more competitive.”
Toohey mentioned to still watch out for Iona and St. Peter’s despite their losses and a couple of surprising teams could be Canisius and Monmouth.
Between Feuer and Toohey, there are two golfers on the team that are worth mentioning. One came to be a bit of a surprise.
“It’s ‘Sid’ [sophomore James Edgeworth] in a lot of ways because of what he did in MAACs last year,” Feuer said. “That’s a huge accomplishment as a freshman. I told him that and he thought I was being an idiot. But it’s the truth.”
At the 2013 MAAC Championship, Edgeworth as a freshman, opened his first round with a 73 followed by two scores of four-over 73, placed 10th and finished with a 76 before being named to the All-MAAC team.
Toohey half agreed with Feuer’s choice for the team’s player to watch before shocking him with who he deemed worthy.
“Jonny [Feuer] impressed me. Jonny put in a lot of hardwork,” Toohey said. “And it’s awesome to see because I’ve been waiting for him to kind of poke his little head out of the womb and say, ‘Hey I’m here’. Jonny is a sleeper.”
The team knows they have it within themselves to put it all together.
“It’s all about consistency. We have the scores in us,” Feuer said. “We see these guys put these scores up. It’s nothing crazy. But we just have to all do it together, all at the same time.”