<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2WmCGM_0vjviBjh00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2WmCGM_0vjviBjh00" width="1024" height="576" ><figcaption>Provided by BU Bearcats Junior Brandon Conner placed 41st with a score of 225/12 over par for BU at “The Goat” invitational, hosted by Navy, over the weekend.</figcaption></figure>Binghamton looks to bounce back after last place finish.Looking to improve upon a 10th place result at the Howard/USF Intercollegiate Tournament, the Binghamton men’s golf team struggled to find success at “The Goat,” Navy’s invitational tournament, last weekend. The team failed to register a top-40 finish from any individual player while being relegated to a last-place result in the 15-team field.“We didn’t perform as well as we could have,” said Binghamton head coach Bernie Herceg. “It was 36 holes, and our team didn’t perform as well as we did last year. Day two, our team performed better than day one. On day one, we struggled. A couple of floppy shots cost the guys an okay round. There were no weather conditions or other significant reasons for the bad performance.”Leading the way for the Bearcats on day one of the action in a tie for 64th place on the leaderboards were juniors Brandon Conner and Sean Shen. Conner struggled out of the gate in Saturday’s first round with a score of 80/9 over par but used the second round of the day to his advantage by stringing together four birdies en route to a second-round scorecard of 74/3 over par. Shen meanwhile was more consistent than his teammate, with scorecards of 76/5 over par and 78/7 over par across the action on Saturday.“[Conner] had a great tournament last year and is showing signs of getting back to where he was,” Herceg said. “He’s been a little inconsistent. If he can just sharpen up his ball striking, he’ll be fine. He hits the ball well but struggles under tournament pressure. It’s just a matter of scoring.”Looking to give both himself and his team a boost in the ranking in the final round on day two, Conner punched in his best 18 holes relative to par on the 2024-25 campaign Sunday. Conner’s final round tally of 71/even par boosted him 23 spots in the rankings to a final tie for 41st place overall, with a final score of 225/12 over par. Also rising the individual leaderboards with a final round score of 73/2 over par was sophomore Harrison Blech, whose round Sunday lowered his final score to 230/17 over par for a 57th-place finish.“[Blech] played solid,” Herceg said. “His strikes were good, but his putting was off par. A couple of bad breaks left him short on some holes, but he was hitting the ball hard and well. Hopefully, this week we’ll be working on improving his hitting for the next round.”Elsewhere in the final rankings, Shen dropped to 67th overall with a final scorecard of 232/19 over par after shooting a second 78/7 over par round on Sunday. Overall, due to the lack of strong individual performances and consistency across the board, the squad put up a final cumulative tally of 923/71 over par which resulted in a last-place finish at the tournament for the program.“There wasn’t any added pressure on the guys,” Herceg said. “They just had a bad day. Day one was 36 holes, and they got rest but were a little discouraged. They wanted to prove they were better than their performance on the first day.”The Bearcats will hope for a fresh start as they return to the Southern Tier to host their annual tournament, the Matthews Auto Collegiate Golf Invitational from Sunday, Oct. 6 to Monday, Oct. 7. Tee times are yet to be determined at the Hiawatha Landings in Apalachin, New York.</div></body>

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Golf finishes 15th at “The Goat” invitational

Binghamton looks to bounce back after last place finish. Looking to improve upon a 10th place result at the Howard/USF Intercollegiate Tournament, the Binghamton men’s golf team struggled to find success at “The Goat,” Navy’s invitational tournament, last weekend. The team failed to register a top-40 finish from any individual player while being relegated to a last-place result in the 15-team field.