Men's Golf Looks to Stay Hot at Macdonald Cup

Saturday, September 29

New Haven, Conn. (The Course at Yale)

All Day

Bucknell University

Macdonald Cup

9/28/2018 3:51:00 PM | Men's Golf

What: 2018 Macdonald Cup, hosted by Yale
When: Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 29-30 (54 holes); 7:30 a.m. start Saturday, 9 a.m. start Sunday
Where: Par-70, 6,825-yard The Course at Yale, New Haven, Conn.
The Field: 13 teams (Boston College, Brown, Bucknell, Colgate, Fairfield, Fordham, Harvard, No. 16 Illinois, Penn, Princeton, Sacred Heart, Stirling, Yale)

Live Stats: GolfStat.com

About the Bison

Bucknell has played some terrific golf over the last two weeks, and now heads to New Haven to square off against a strong field at Yale's Macdonald Cup.
The Bison are coming off a win against another Ivy League-heavy field at last week's Quechee Club Collegiate Challenge, hosted by Dartmouth. The previous week, Bucknell finished fourth out of 15 teams at the Cornell Invitational.
Last week's win was made possible by a stellar final round. The Bison compiled a 7-under-par 281 -- a school record in relation to par -- to move up from sixth place entering the day to a five-stroke victory. The trio of J.P. Raftery (68), Chris Tanabe (69) and Connor O'Brien (69) combined to shoot 10-under, and the fourth counting score was a solid 75 from freshman Carter Cook.
Tanabe and O'Brien both shot 71-69 at Quechee Club and tied for first place individually. Brown's Drew Powell won a four-man playoff with a birdie at the first hole. Tanabe and O'Brien were later tabbed co-Bison Athletes of the Week.
O'Brien's stellar outing came in his first start of the season. Among players who have played in at least two of the three tournaments to date, Tanabe has the team's lowest scoring average at 72.1, followed by Raftery (74.0), Peter Bradbeer (74.3) and Jason Lohwater (74.3).
Tanabe, O'Brien, Raftery, Bradbeer and either Lohwater or Cook will be in the starting five this week at Yale.

Bucknell at the Macdonald Cup

The Bison played in this event for the first time last season, placing 10th with team scores of 291-291-309. Bucknell was in fifth place after 36 holes before faltering a bit in the final round. O'Brien was the low Bison, placing T-9th (70-71-75).
Even though that was Bucknell's first appearance at the Macdonald Cup, which debuted in 2003, the Bison do have plenty of experience on Yale's home course. Most notably, Bucknell won Yale's spring invitational in April 2016 with rounds of 295-300. John Edler was the runner-up individually, while Connor O'Brien (T-9th, 73-76) and J.P. Raftery (T-27th, 76-77) were also in the lineup for that event.
Bucknell also played at The Course at Yale last spring, placing eighth in a field of 16 with rounds of 303-298. Peter Bradbeer shot 76-73 to lead the Bison. Raftery's second-round 71 was the team's best of the tournament.
Bucknell played at Yale six times between 1972-80, twice at the Eastern Championships and four times in Yale's fall invitational. The team's best finish was eighth in Yale's event in the fall of 1978.
Yale is the defending Macdonald Cup champion. The Bulldogs won with an 852 total over 54 holes last year, while Stirling's Robert Foley finished at 3-under to win the individual title.

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