Cole Frazier-
The nationally ranked Gustavus Men’s Golf Team had a successful weekend at the esteemed Taconic Country Club for the highly regarded Williams Invite. The Gusties won the Williams Invite and a team member won the tournament’s individual aspect.
It was none other than Junior Chris Gutuza Jr. who took home the win as the individual champion. Gutuza finished the first round tied for number four finishing at +2 after the first day. It wasn’t until Day Two that he really kicked into gear, finishing the day at -3. Ending his tournament as the only player to finish in the red at -1, reaching first place by an astounding four strokes. This was Gutuza’s first individual collegiate victory and it marked the second year in a row in which a Gustie individual won the Williams Invite.
When asked about his performance, Gutuza said, “I played pretty good on Day One and then better than average on Day Two. The biggest difference was that I didn’t make any silly errors that cost me shots. This season is going fairly well so far for the team. We have won 2 out of 4 tournaments with 2 individual champions. Hopefully, we can carry the momentum over to our home event this weekend and into conference to finish off the season on a high.”
Another Gustie golfer, who played out of his mind, was Senior Teddy Kaste. Kaste finished his weekend in fourth place with a stellar score of +5. When asked how he and the team performed so well over the weekend, he said, “The boys played great this weekend out in Massachusetts, it was great to pick up a win in a strong field of 18 teams. We listened to “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” by the Dropkick Murphys before the round and I think that really got us going. My driver broke on hole 11 so I was handicapped out there, but I parred my last 6 holes hitting just a hybrid off the tee and I was proud of myself for grinding through that. Chris Gutuza is an amazing guy and an amazing player, and his win was a long time coming. This team is coming together and we are hot going into the last two tournaments so I’m really excited to play the next 2 weekends.”
It is clear that spirits are high for this Gustie golf team. Despite the struggles that Kaste faced on his last day, he was able to overcome the adversity and finish Day Two with an astonishing +1 score. This was even an improvement of his Day One score of +4!
The Gustie team showed all division three teams that they are not here to mess around, with the whole team’s score being nine strokes better than the next best-performing school, Middlebury, who shot +31 on the weekend.