Baistrocchi hits the greens

Sophomore Marcos Baistrocchi is heading into a three-week season as a two-year member of Suffolk University’s golf team. Appearing in their fourth Annual Spring Series,  the golf team opened the season with a one-day competition hosted by Rhode Island College Anchormen at the Valley Country Club in Warwick, R.I. on April 1.

The invitational was   originally set for a two-day competition, but the second day was canceled due to inclement weather. Suffolk finished 15th overall of 16 teams.

The 19-year-old advertising major wished for a second day of competition to learn and improve his game from the first day.

Prior to preparing for a competition, Baistrocchi said the team practices on putting, chipping and driving for an hour before parting to compete with players from other schools. On average, finishing a course takes three to four hours to complete. Baistrocchi uses his score to either perform better or match his score if he played well.

Other than his short game, which is hitting short shots with accuracy, Baistrocchi thought he played well as he got the ball on the green.

“My short game didn’t give in, I really want to practice on my short game,” he said. “My score didn’t reflect how I played.”

However, Baistrocchi thought he did well on his driving, which helped him to stay on track during the course of the one-day trip.

The 40 mph winds Baistrocchi faced on Friday afternoon made it more difficult to send his putts into the holes.

“The greens were difficult,” he said. He wants to work on his putting and hitting as “the ball didn’t want to go in.”

Baistrocchi said in order to keep his head in the game, he needs to take the game hole-by-hole.

“I was just angry at myself, it affects other holes,” he said. “Once you lose your head, you lose your concentration.”

At the end of the team’s past fall season, Baistrocchi created a short list of “the little things” he wanted to improve on heading into the final two week stretch of the year, listing working on his putting, long drives, and keeping the ball in the fairway.

“I thought I could have done better,” he said. “I feel like we didn’t fulfill our potential.”

Baistrocchi said as a group, the team is striving to do better. In the fall, the team ranked eighth place in both the 2015 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) and Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships. The team also placed 19th of 22 teams at the New England Intercollegiate Golf Association (NEIGA) Championships.

“Hopefully, our team does better this season,” he said. “We have young talent, everyone’s great on the team. We’re motivated to do better this season.”

Baistrocchi and his eight teammates will travel to the Allendale Country Club in North Dartmouth, Mass. on April 8-9 for a two-day competition at the 2016 Westport Hampton Inn Spring Invitational, hosted by the UMASS Dartmouth Corsairs. The three-week season will conclude on April 16-17 as the Johnson & Wales University Wildcats host the two-day spring invitational at the Cranston Country Club in Cranston, R.I.

“[We’re] going to have a great three weeks, it’ll be memorable and hopefully we can win the tournament,” he said.