Spiders fall to Davidson in Waterville, Ireland

Sunday, October 9

Waterville, Ireland

University of Richmond

Davidson

10/09/2022 | Men's Golf

WATERVILLE, IRELAND -- The Richmond Spiders men's golf team fell to two-time defending Atlantic 10 champion Davidson in a match at Waterville Golf Links Sunday. The match, which consisted of eight singles matches worth one point each, ended with a score of 4.5-3.5 in Davidson's favor.

A steady wind of 25 MPH and periods of heavy rain made scoring -- and, at times, just standing -- difficult at famed Waterville Golf Links Sunday.

"We knew going in it was going to be really tough and I think the weather still exceeded our expectations," said Spiders senior Lou Baker, who defeated Davidson's Ethan Hall in his match. "When it gets that tough you've got to just buckle down and realize that everyone is going to struggle, so you just have to try to struggle less. You're going to hit shots that you've never tried to hit before and get bad breaks that you've never gotten before, but at the end of the day you're in Ireland with your best friends and you've got to think about that when you get those breaks and just play as well as you can."

Baker was one of three Spiders to earn a full point, along with sophomore Patrick Isztwan and senior Ben Cooper.

"The biggest thing I focused on was trying to keep the ball low," said Cooper. "I hit some shots that I would never think of hitting before -- from 150 yards out trying to keep the ball 10 feet off the ground and run it up on the green. It's definitely different than golf in the United States, thinking about how the wind is going to affect every shot."

Richmond had a chance to halve the match on the 18th green, a 556-yard par 5 playing downwind, but grad student Michael Childress' 15-foot birdie putt burned the left edge. Childress ending up halving the hole and the match vs Davidson's Jackson Bode.

The Spiders, visiting Ireland during the University of Richmond's fall break, will compete in an intersquad competition at Tralee Golf Club Monday.

Match vs Davidson Result
Brian Garrett (Davidson) def. Alex Campbell (Richmond) 3&2
Will Davis (Davidson) def. Cole Ekert (Richmond) 3&2
Mel Deasy (Davidson) def. Drew Carlin (Richmond) 3&2
Alex Heffner (Davidson) def. Garrett Clark (Richmond) 6&5
Jackson Bode (Davidson) halved vs Michael Childress (Richmond)
Patrick Isztwan (Richmond) def. Joshua Stewart (Davidson) 5&3
Ben Cooper (Richmond) def. Price Miller (Davidson) 4&3
Lou Baker (Richmond) def. Ethan Hall (Davidson) 3&2