Noah Peck shot a final round 73 to help Villanova finish tied for 11th place at the VCU Invitational. The sophomore shot a three-round score of 221 (76, 72, 73) to finish T48 in the individual portion of the tourney. Freshman Matt Minerva finished second on the team with a three-round score of 222. Jack O’Hara finished with a 225. Danny Dougherty shot a 226 and Mark Benevento rounded up the team with a 236. Overall, Villanova finished with an 889 score, which was eight strokes better than their 897 at the Alex Lagowitz Memorial. 

Old Dominion took home the team title in their home state. 

“Scores were fairly low, which wasn’t too surprising because there were very good teams.” James Wilkes, Head Coach of the Villanova golf team said, “the course was difficult, but it was a fair test.” 

“The course was super nice, it was open, greens were tough and it was really hot out there,” Noah Peck, a walk-on sophomore, said. Noah finished T48 in the tournament with a final round 73 that saw him start -2 through his first six holes.

“I feel like after playing 36 on the first day, I was more confident the second day and knew where to put the balls,” he said.

This is the second time in a row where Noah Peck, Matt Minerva, Jack O’Hara,and Danny Dougherty have contributed to the scoring on the team. Peck, O’Hara and Dougherty are all sophomores, while Minerva is only a freshman. 

“I could not be more excited,” Wilkes said. “The fact that they were thrusted into the starting lineups, are contributing, and are among the top scorers has significantly helped our depth.”

Peck is also really excited about the young guys playing so well and having a pretty young team. 

“Yeah, since we are young, we got time to get into the swing of things and really bond together as a team,” he said. “It’s been an awesome experience, there is a ton of camaraderie on this team and everyone has been pretty welcoming to me.”  

Next up for Villanova is its home tournament, the Villanova Invitational. When asked about whether playing on its home course that would give the team an advantage, Coach Wilkes, deflected such notions.

“We have such a young team, that the young guys, haven’t really got to play our course too much, but we will go out and play it a lot before the tournament and try to get an idea of where the best places to play it are,” he said. “It will also be nice to get Reb [Banas] and Luke [Alexander] into a tournament and give them that experience. So everyone on our team will have played in a tournament.” Peck is excited as well.

“It’s going to be fun,” Peck said. “I know the course pretty well, so hopefully I can keep putting up good numbers.”