No. 21 Men's Golf at the Duke Nelson Invitational
Saturday, September 14 | 11 a.m. 
Sunday, September 15 | 9 a.m.
Ralph Myhre Golf Club | Middlebury, Vt. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    The 21st-ranked Babson men's golf team will open its season at Middlebury's Duke Nelson Invitational for the fourth year in a row. 
•    The Beavers will tee it up alongside some of the top teams in the region on Saturday and Sunday at Ralph Myhre G.C., a par-71, 6,379-yard layout at the foothills of the Green Mountains. 

2023 DUKE NELSON INVITATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
•    Senior John Baldwin fired rounds of 70-71 and finished second at 1-under par to help Babson post an eight-stroke victory at Ralph Myhre G.C. on September 9-10. 
•    Junior Shane Quinn and sophomore Evan Eichenlaub tied for ninth position at 3-over, while Sean Fitzgerald '23 M'24 closed with a round of 3-under 68 to grab a share of 14th place at 4-over for the Green and White. 
•    Leading by one shot after round one, the Beavers recorded the low score of the final round (284) to post a 36-hole total of 9-over 577. They finished eight strokes clear of second-place Trinity (585) and nine shots better than third-place Endicott (586). 

ABOUT THE BEAVERS
•    Babson returns four GCAA Region I selections and seven of its top eight players from a 2023 squad that finished the year with a 296.00 stroke average. 
•    Quinn was second on the team in stroke average (74.35) and registered a pair of top-10 finishes in seven events, while Baldwin (74.86) posted four top-20 results in eight starts last year. 
•    They were joined on the all-region squad by sophomore Evan Eichenlaub (75.88) and junior Thomas Amaya (75.89), who each recorded a pair of top-10 finishes in 2023-24. 
•    Junior Colin Fowler finished at level-par or better four times in 14 rounds and had a 76.21 stroke average, while sophomores Jack Berry (76.14) and Ian Rourke (78.14) both saw action in four events as rookies. 

POLL POSITION
•    After being ranked in every poll last year, the Beavers checked in at No. 21 when GCAA released its Bushnell/Golfweek Division III preseason poll back in August. 
•    After starting last season at No. 23, the Green and White rose as high as 12th last October before finishing the 2023-24 campaign ranked 18th. 

SUCCESS UP NORTH
•    Babson has finished atop the leaderboard in two of its last three visits to Ralph Myhre G.C. (2021, 2023) and has been victorious three times in its last six starts going back to 2017. 
•    The Beavers have recorded six consecutive top-five finishes at Middlebury since 2017 and have placed no worse than sixth in eight consecutive starts at Middlebury dating back to 2015. 
•    In six career rounds at Ralph Myhre, Baldwin owns a 73.33 scoring average and is just 6-over in his last five starts going back to the final round of the 2022 Duke Nelson Invitational. 
•    Babson has broken 300 in 11 of its last 12 rounds at Ralph Myhre and boasts a 292.58 team scoring average since the first round of the 2017 tournament. 
•    The Beavers have finished with a 36-hole total of 592 or lower in five of their last six appearances at the Duke Nelson Invitational. 

THE MAN IN CHARGE
•    Head coach Jeff Page, now in his 12th season, has helped the men's golf program rise to regional and national prominence over the last decade. 
•    A four-time GCAA regional coach of the year, Page has led the Beavers to four NCAA Championship appearances while seeing his squad lower its stroke average by nearly 40 shots since taking over in 2013. 

ABOUT THE FIELD
•    The 25-team field features many of the programs from the NESCAC and Liberty League, as well as three squads that participated in last year's NCAA Championship (Farmingdale State, Springfield, Tufts). 
•    Each of the teams that made up the top-10 in last year's event are set to tee it up beginning on Saturday at Middlebury. 

UP NEXT
•    The Beavers travel to Williamstown, Mass., to compete in the Williams Invitational at Taconic Golf Club next Saturday and Sunday.