Bonnies Golf Spring 2023 Newsletter

The St. Bonaventure golf team opens its spring schedule with its first trip to the Savannah Intercollegiate at the Club at Savannah Harbor Feb. 18-19.

It’s an earlier than usual start for the Bonnies, but they’ll have nearly a month until their next competition after teeing up the spring in Savannah. After a spring break trip, the Bonnies return to action at the Ross Collegiate Classic at Mid-Pines March 13-14.

While Savannah is a new stop on the schedule, the Bonnies will make several familiar trips this spring – in addition to Mid-Pines, Bona’s will play in the Golden Horseshoe Intercollegiate and the Abarta Collegiate Classic at Northhampton CC in return trips for the program. The final tune-up of the spring before conference championships will be at Colgate’s Seven Oaks Golf Club where the Bonnies opened the fall season this past September in an annual trip for the program to Hamilton, N.Y.

VETERANS AT THE TOP

A pair of graduate students led the Bonnies throughout the fall and will be looked to again as the spring gets underway.

Erik Stauderman is in his fifth season with the program and has a team-best scoring average of 73.9 during the fall. Stauderman posted his lowest career 54-hole total, 214, and lowest round to par for career, 3-under 69, at the VCU Shootout in September. The team captain also had a career-best 54-hole finish by tying for fifth at the Matthews Auto Intercollegiate in Binghamton last October on The Links at Hiawatha Landing. 

Fellow grad student Jack Angelucci recorded a fall scoring average of 74.5, including a win in The Murray Cup with the low round of 72. The Mercyhurst transfer, who can be heard announcing many Bonnies games on ESPN+ throughout the year, also had a top-20 finish in Binghamton. 

Senior Lance Sininger continued his steady improvement in the last couple of seasons with a scoring average of 74.1 in the fall. He finished eighth in The Murray Cup and finished the season with a 20th-place finish in the ODU/Kilmarlic Invite including a season-best round of 71. 

Senior Andrew Lemay along with junior Jude Cummings also played in multiple events during the fall and fellow upperclassmen Aidan Shaw, Andrew LaCongo and Peter Byrne return as well. 

FRESH FACES

In addition to their veterans, the Bonnies added three freshmen this season. 

Michael Bucko was in the lineup for every event of the fall, opening his college career with rounds of 74-77-71 at Colgate back in September. He followed that up with his collegiate low round, so far, of -2 under 70 the next week at the VCU Shootout. For the fall, he finished with a 76.6 scoring average.

Fellow frosh Gabe Williams played in four of the team’s five fall events while Caleb Decker is in his first year with the program as well. Williams finished fifth at the New York State Golf Championship as a senior, highlighted by a final round 70 at Mark Twain Golf Course in Elmira. Bucko also qualified for the state championships last spring and he led Section IV championship squads at Seton Catholic in the Binghamton area. Decker represented Section III at the state championships and was the Tri-Valley League Player of the Year for Veron-Verona-Sherrill High prior to committing to the Bonnies and the trio look to make an impact in their first spring with the program. 

MESSAGE FROM COACH SWANSON

We certainly wanted to play better in the fall, but we had a lot of growing to do and had to fill the void of three very good and experienced players that graduated. I think we played better than we scored. It might be naive to say that, but I was really pleased with our younger guys and how they mesh with our veterans. 

At the end of the fall we sat down together and expressed opinions how we can improve. To shoot good scores and play at a high level on the course, we have to improve what we do off the course. We need to prepare better, study courses better, workout in the gym smarter, and most of all practice more efficiently! Our grad-seniors are providing leadership like I've never seen to combat all those issues. They get it, they've put in the work, and are really setting the bar high for the younger guys. 

I'm very proud of what the team has accomplished since November 1 and excited to see the hard work pay off, starting in Savannah on Saturday. 

ACADEMIC SUCCESS

Bonnies golfers continued to do great work in the classroom during the fall semester.

The team finished the semester with a cumulative 3.35 GPA. Six Bonnies have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or better while seven were above 3.25. 

Special shoutout to senior Andrew Lemay with a 3.97 cumulative GPA and grad student Erik Stauderman at 3.90 for leading the team!