16-05-2025
Rhode Island came from NIT country to prove itself at the National Golf Invitational
Rhode Island came from NIT country to prove itself at the National Golf Invitational
In the Northeast, the National Invitational Tournament – the annual men's college basketball tournament for Division I teams that do not qualify for the NCAA tournament – truly resonates. That's especially true for a guy like Gregg Burke, head men's golf coach at Rhode Island. Burke, who grew up as a Providence College and Holy Cross basketball fan (and attended the latter school), recognizes that any comparison to the NIT will be received in an enormous way.
And now he's living it.
Burke's Rams received an invitation to the third annual National Golf Invitational this week, the men's college golf equivalent of the NIT. It's the team's first postseason appearance since the NCAA stopped selecting teams for the postseason according to districts. The invite perked administrative ears on Rhode Island's campus all the way up to the university president's office. Every fundraising phone call that Burke made to get here was a pleasure.
'Any reference to this being like the NIT of golf is monstrous for a school like Rhode Island because we have such tradition with the actual NIT,' Burke said.
Now imagine being a member of the Rhode Island team that won four times in the fall season, climbed inside the top 160 of the national men's golf rankings and then scored that NGI invite. 'Pumped' doesn't begin to cover it.
When Burke found out that a spot in the NGI field was possible, he initially kept it to himself. When the invite came through, he presented it casually to the team. At first they didn't believe him.
'Once they took grasp of it, it was pretty cool,' Burke said.
Burke's career in athletics is layered, with experiences in everything from sports information to administration to NCAA tournament management. And so he took the week one step further.
'I've seen how people do it,' Burke said, referencing the hype in which many programs surround their postseason squads. 'When we officially got the invite, I went to our athletic director, who was super stoked, and said I want to do this big time.'
Ultimately, Burke's goal was to make this postseason start special for the players who made it possible. He had new uniforms printed with the NGI logo for all three tournament rounds. It's a big opportunity for Rhode Island, one of three Atlantic 10 Conference teams (George Mason, Richmond) in the field at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona, and Burke wanted it to seem so for the players.
The 10-team field also includes Ohio State from the Big 10, Oregon State from the West Coast and West Virginia from the Big 12. Rhode Island knows what it's up against but at the same time, this team came to play the golf course. And Burke loves a good underdog story – always has throughout his career.
'I kind of cut my teeth on the mentality that there's nothing that's insurmountable,' he said. '. . . We're here to try to play up and really prove to ourselves, as much as anyone else, that we can compete.'
Freshmen Luke Stennett and Tyler Bruneau anchor Rhode Island's lineup. Stennett finished in the top 10 in all 10 tournaments he appeared in this season. Graduate student Sean Magarian has been a newcomer to this level of golf after transferring in from Assumption, an NCAA Division II school in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Many coaches might not travel a senior to a postseason event like the NGI, choosing instead to use it as development for returners. Burke, however, looks at it as a tangible reward for all the work put in throughout the year, and so Magarian, who helped the Rams get to this point, completes the lineup.
'I'm really, really, really old-fashioned,' Burke said. 'My team has won like 28 times in my 14 years, it's not because I'm a swing coach. We have won on discipline and pride.'
Burke's men studiously poured over their yardage books as they flew around the course with the first practice-round tee time of the day on Thursday. Only, Burke doesn't call it a practice round.
'We call it the pre-tournament round,' he said. 'We're here to see where we have to respect the golf course and where we can take advantage.'
The major adjustment for his team on an unfamiliar desert layout has been in carry distance, especially off the tee. Only one player on Burke's team has played desert golf, so the sheer aesthetics – mountain views beyond the greens – only adds to the excitement.
'There's so many fairway traps, you really have to dial in your driver or, we're hitting irons off tees because it's flying further, so that's a change obviously but the climate is spectacular.'
