Men’s Golf Starts Strong, Battles at 2022 Goodwin at Stanford, Looks Ahead to Purdue

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The men’s golf team fought hard in California this weekend.

The Scarlet Knights were +11 as a team during the three-round event in Stanford, California.

Upperclassmen Xavier Marcoux and Luke Wells were the leaders for the Scarlet Knights in the event. Marcoux shot a +2 on the weekend and Luke Wells was two strokes behind his fellow junior teammate at +4.

Head coach Rob Shutte made a slight tweak in the lineup and had Wells in the first spot as the two had some friendly competition throughout the event.

“They are really going head-to-head a lot here,” Shutte said. I kind of flipped them in the lineup. I put Luke in the one spot to just kind of try to push their buttons a bit because they are so competitive with each other.”

The Scarlet Knights had a strong first round as they shot 278 as a team led by a birdie by Wells and an eagle by Marcoux on the final hole. Shutte shared a story about the competitiveness of his two leaders on the ninth hole on day one.

“In that first round Luke had finished three under and birdied his last hole. He hit it like a foot in front of Xavier and tapped it in to get to three under. Xavier went next and hit a huge drive to the par 4. He walked up to the green with me and asked what Luke finished at. He ended up holing out for an eagle and it was an exciting moment for him and the team to finish there at -2. Both of those two guys have really shown their maturity as juniors.”

 

Super Mario! @xmarcoux29 with the hole out eagle from 62 yards on his last hole to close out his opening round 🦅🦅🦅#JerseyJuice🥤 #GoRU⚔️ pic.twitter.com/5KEbKawxo0

— Rutgers Mens Golf (@RUMensGolf) March 24, 2022

After the second round, Rutgers was in a great position at even par as a team heading into the final day.

“The group was loaded up at the top with top 40 programs and after the first two rounds we were sitting in a spot to where we were just a couple of shots from a couple of huge head-to-head wins going into the final round,” Shutte said. “Going into two-thirds of the tournament you position yourself to have that shot in the last round.

“There are positives to take from it,” Shutte said. “We put ourselves in the position in the first two rounds to show that we are a regional team in the NCAA’s. In that final round we just didn’t see some of the things we…