With the Big East tournament looming, the Pirate golf team finished the regular season strong with a second place finish in Princeton over the weekend. The Pirates were led by the solid play of Kevin O’Brien who helped bring The Hall from fourth place to second in the final round with an even-par, 70 on Sunday. O’Brien finished at two-over for the tournament, which was good enough for a 72-70-142 for the weekend and tied for fourth place out of 72 golfers. This was the second ever top-five finish in O’Brien’s young career and one of his lowest scores ever in a tournament. Temple’s Brandon Matthews took home the title and finished three strokes better than O’Brien. Seton Hall finished tied for second with a 26-over-par tournament and finished 15 strokes higher than the Yale Bulldogs who took home the team title with an 11-over-par performance. As a team, the Pirates finished with a second round score of 289, which was eight strokes better than the first round total of 297. That gave The Hall a total of 586 for the weekend and momentum as they head into the conference tournament. As far as the Big East rivals go, the Pirates finished 14 strokes lower than St. John’s and 18 strokes better than Georgetown. The blue and white continue to play well in tournaments with fields that include conference rivals. At Princeton, the Pirates got three other solid final rounds that helped propel them to a top-three spot. JT Harper had a solid tournament as he shot 72-73-145 and finished second on the team. Harper was tied for the team lead after round one and continued to play well on Sunday. Sophomore Lloyd Jefferson Go also finished his tournament with a 73 following his first round score of 74 and finished at seven-over-par. After struggling with a 79 in round one, Ryan Snouffer also had a 73 on Sunday and improved his score to 12-over-par for the weekend. Cory Wilson finished with a 22-over-par, 83-79-162 as the Pirate golf team is showing that they are getting hot at the right time. This tournament was split between two golf courses at the Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa. which hosted the first round and the East Course at the Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., that hosted the U.S. Open as recently as two years ago, had the last 18 holes. Seton Hall has now finished in the top-three of their last three tournaments and it was the fourth time they had done that this season. Other than the three recent top-three finishes, the last time The Hall finished towards the top was at the Navy Fall Classic where the Pirates won back in September. Now they are in search of a conference championship. The Pirates now gear up for the Big East tournament in two weeks as the confidence and level of play rises for this team. Seton Hall will play for the Big East title on April 26-28 at Callawassie Island Goff Club in Okatie, S.C.
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