Bison Men's Golf Heads to Virginia for Patriot Intercollegiate

Setting The Scene
What: George Mason Patriot Intercollegiate
When: Sunday-Monday (36 holes Sunday, 18 Monday), 8:15 a.m.
Where: Laurel Hills Golf Club, Lorton, Va.
The Field: Bucknell, George Mason, Appalachian State, Bethune-Cookman, Binghamton, Drexel, Eastern Kentucky, Fairleigh Dickinson, High Point, Lafayette, La Salle, Longwood, Monmouth, Old Dominion, St. Bonaventure, Saint Joseph's, Towson, Villanova, Florida Gulf Coast

Live Scoring: GolfStat.com.

About the Bison
>> It has been a busy September for the Bison, who will be playing their fourth tournament in as many weeks to start the fall season.

>> Coach Michael Binney's team has played some good golf thus far, finishing sixth at the Colgate Invitational, second at the Bucknell Invitational and sixth at the Cornell Invitational over the last three weekends. The Bison have a solid 297.8 team scoring average in eight rounds, with a low of 287 (+3) last week at Cornell.

>> Bucknell's five-man lineup this week will feature four sophomores and a freshman. The second-year group includes Jubal Early, Connor O'Brien, J.P. Raftery and Ashton Radvansky. Freshman Peter Bradbeer will join them. Senior D.J. Magee will go out as an individual.

>> Raftery has been Bucknell's top performer this season, building off his second-place finish at the Patriot League Championship in the spring. He already has two top-five finishes with a T-5th at Colgate and T-4th at Bucknell. His 72.2 scoring average includes a career-best 69 in the second round at Bucknell. Raftery is back after taking last week off.

>> Early is coming off the best performance of his career, a T-8th finish at Cornell. He posted rounds of 77-70-73, with the 1-under 70 a personal best.

>> O'Brien's 74.5 average is second on the team behind Raftery. O'Brien shot a season-best 69 (-1) at the Bucknell Invitational, and he closed last week with a 1-under 70 at Cornell to sneak into the top-20.

>> Bradbeer had an impressive debut at Colgate, finishing T-8th as an individual with rounds of 76-72-74 at the par-72 Seven Oaks GC. This will be his first appearance since then, and it is the first of his career in the starting five.

>> As a team, Bucknell bounced back nicely from a shaky opening-round 315 last week at Cornell. The Bison came right back in the afternoon with that season-best 287, vaulting from 11th place to sixth. They held on to the sixth spot with a 292 on Sunday.

The Patriot Intercollegiate
>> This will be the Fifth Annual Patriot Intercollegiate, with 19 teams in the field at Laurel Hills. It will be Bucknell's first time in the tournament.

>> West Florida won the 2015 title with a record-setting 5-under team score. Previous champions were Missouri (-1) in 2014, Marshall (+9) in 2013, and Missouri (-2) in 2012. Towson's Jimmy Grem was the medalist at 9-under last season. That included a second-round 64 on the par-71 track.

Up Next
>> Bucknell returns to action next Sunday and Monday (Oct. 2-3) at the Matthews Auto Collegiate Invitational, hosted by Binghamton at the Links at Hiawatha Landing in Apalachin, N.Y.