The Bentley University men's golf team looks forward to slate of seven events this fall while welcoming freshmen from across the country, all coming in with impressive resumes.

The schedule begins Sept. 11-12 with the LeMoyne Fall Preview, an event held at the Timber Banks Golf Club near Syracuse, N.Y. That will be the venue of next spring's NCAA Division II East Regional, a tournament featuring the best 20 teams from the Atlantic and East districts. The Falcons will be shooting to extend their string of regional appearances to six.

Newcomers on an already highly ranked team (#4 in the East D-II) hail from Connecticut, Texas, San Diego and New York. They are Logan French (Tolland, Conn./East Catholic HS), Chris Simione (Cheshire, Conn./Cheshire HS), Sam Butler (Lakeway, Texas/Lake Travis HS), Alex Baracchini (San Diego, Calif./ Torrey Pines HS) and Doug Kulikowski (Pittsford, N.Y./Pittsford Sutherland HS). The first four were captains of their high school teams last year, and Kulikowski is coming off a gap year in which he played competitively around the nation in various junior and adult events.

These freshmen will join a team led by senior co-captains Malcolm Oliver (Damariscotta, Maine/Lincoln Academy) & Tommy Ayres (Bolton/Nashoba Reg. HS).  Oliver posted two individual victories last season, highlighted by his phenomenal two-stroke win over 180 fellow New England collegians from all three divisions in the 2014 New England Intercollegiate Golf Association championships, leading his team to their fourth win in a record five-win season. 

Though losing heralded captains Jon Stoddard and Quincy Coulter to graduation, the Falcons welcome back three sophomores who together garnered five Northeast-10 Rookie of the Week awards: Cal Meyers (Richfield, Wisc./Slinger HS), Jimmy Brunone (Plymouth/Tabor Academy) and Brett Chatfield (Attleboro/Bishop Feehan HS), the latter having won his college debut in New Hampshire last fall firing a 143 at Bretwood to open his college account. 

After last fall (four wins and two runners-up), Bentley was ranked as high as #2 in the East.  Heading into this season, the teams ranked ahead of Bentley from the East are Saint Thomas Aquinas, Wilmington and Le Moyne.

One of the fall victories was the NE-10 Conference Championship where the winning margin was 13 shots over arch rival Le Moyne. The Falcons fired a 297-296 with all five players cracking the top 10 (Oliver, Ayres, Meyers, Stoddard and Chatfield).  It was Bentley's second conference title in four years coming off a disappointing second place in 2013 after opening an 18-stroke lead.

Bentley golf continues to value high academic achievement, illustrated by a team GPA of 3.3 - one of the highest of any D-II team in the region.  The program was particularly proud of senior Sal Visali (4.0) who successfully represented Bentley in the nation-wide FED CHALLENGE, a congregation of collegiate debating teams invited to participate/ compete in front the Fed in NYC last winter.  Related pride too is directed toward recent graduate Tom Freeman (3.8), who was accepted into the Bentley McCallum Graduate School of Business. He has one more year of eligibility and will be another of the 13 returnees this year.

With the NCAA Regional scheduled for central New York in the spring of 2016, the Bentley Falcons will strive to not only qualify again but finish in the top five to gain a spot in the national NCAA D-II Championship in Alabama next May.  The Regionals have not been held north of Pennsylvania for a dozen years.  This "home-field" advantage is an opportunity for the Falcons to reach new heights this coming season.

Mickey Herron - PGA
Head Coach

5 year SUMMARY