Billy Geach ’25 stripes his drive straight down the fairway. Courtesy of Hamilton College.
Hamilton College Men’s Golf got off to a great start this last weekend. The team finished in fourth after a highly competitive bout with 22 of the best teams in Division III. The competition included the high-caliber teams of Babson College and NYU. Hamilton’s squad beat Trinity, the sixth-placed team, by four strokes. Lauren Cupp, the head coach of the Men’s Golf Team, noted that this is the best team that she had the pleasure of coaching. All of the five players were selected for the 37th Duke Nelson Invitational tournament. Jack Habeeb ’22 finished in seventh and shot three over on the second day of the tournament. Tommy Kantaros ’24 finished fifteenth, performing extremely well on the first day, shooting two over par. Brian Healy ’25 finished twenty-first. Bill Geach ’23 and Jack McKeon ’22 both finished in twenty-fourth place. All competitors on the team finished in the top 25, establishing the Hamilton team as one of the top competitors in the division.
While most of the team played strikingly well, a notable performance came from the first-year Brian Healy in his first college tournament. Healy highlighted the discrepancy between high school and college play, explaining, “the anticipation and excitement for this tournament far exceeded previous ones as the build-up to it throughout the week were much greater and the time invested in terms of traveling and strategizing was much more substantial.” He added that the quantity and quality of players also created a much more palpable atmosphere of competitiveness. In general, he felt like the stakes felt larger because he was not only responsible for his play, but for the standings and reputation of the team.
Additionally, the players that the team sends are dependent on each member’s weekly play, so in a twenty-one-man roster, almost double that of a normal college roster, there is a lot of pressure for the ones selected to achieve. Furthermore, Brian Healy ’25 edged out his brother Jason Healy ’22 for one of the three coach-chosen spots for the tournament. This aspect did not add any additional pressure to Brian as he said that “I’m much better than him, so I was more focused on my performance.” Fortunately, these external factors did not seem to bother Healy, however, he felt like he could have played much better. He stated, “I honestly wasn’t super satisfied with the way that I performed and I know that I can do much better, but when I saw that I was twenty-first, it made me super excited for future matches.” This performance is only the beginning for Healy and the Hamilton College team, overall, who seem to be at the precipice of dominating Division III.