NORTH PLAINS, Ore. \u2013 Rutgers men’s golf closed out the 2025\u201326 Big Ten Championships on Sunday at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club (Witch Hollow Course) with a strong final-round performance, securing the best finish in program history at the event.<\/p>\n
The Scarlet Knights fired their best round of the week, carding a 2-under par team score on Sunday to climb the leaderboard and finish fourth overall at 10-over par. The result surpasses the program’s previous best Big Ten finish of sixth place, set during the 2019\u201320 season.<\/p>\n
“I think the biggest takeaway for me is just how special this group is,” head coach Rob Shutte<\/a> said. “They had a lot of different opportunities this year, some that didn’t go our way, but also a lot of success. We had four different Big Ten Players of the Week, and we knew we had it in us to put it all together.”<\/p>\n Rutgers was the only team in the field to have all five players compete in all three rounds, with each finishing inside the top 40 individually.<\/p>\n “It really speaks to the culmination of the whole year,” Shutte said. “We’ve been close, with individual success but not quite that big team result. For it to come together in a conference this strong\u2014it shows this wasn’t a fluke. This is who this team is, and they earned that fourth-place finish.”<\/p>\n Sophomore Bennett Espenshade<\/a> led the charge with a stellar 4-under par 66, Rutgers’ low round of the day. He capitalized on scoring opportunities throughout the round, propelling himself into the top 10 individually and providing a key boost in the team’s final push.\u00a0Espenshade finished the event tied in 9th place.<\/p>\n “The game felt great today,” Espenshade said. “I finally made a few putts and felt like I strung it all together at the end. I\u00a0put\u00a0some good golf together this week, and it feels good heading into the summer.”<\/p>\n “He brought the juice,” Shutte said. “All year, you see the talent\u2014tee to green, putting, short game\u2014and you know he’s capable of being in that top tier in this conference. He wasn’t afraid of the moment. From the first tee, he was ready, wanted the pressure, and went right at it.”<\/p>\n Senior Luke Koenig<\/a> and sophomore Argyle Downes<\/a> each contributed rounds of 1-over par 71, delivering steady play to support the team’s counting score.<\/p>\n “I was just trying to stay consistent and patient,” Downes said of his second career Big Ten Championship. “I just wanted to do the best for the team and help out in any way\u00a0I could.”<\/p>\n Freshman Lucas Politano<\/a> added an even-par 70, rounding out Rutgers’ top four with a composed effort, while graduate student Jeffrey Zatorski<\/a> posted a 4-over par 74.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It’s kind of crazy the way this year flew by,” Zatorski said. “I was a little nervous on the first day, but it was fun, and I am proud of our program’s best finish.”<\/p>\n “The Big Tens lived up to everything we talked about throughout the entire season,” Koenig said. “We represented the program really well today.”<\/p>\n Politano and Koenig both finished at (+4) tied for 23rd place.\u00a0Downes and Zatorski both finished at (+7), tied for 40th place.<\/p>\n “I got off to a great start in the first round,” Politano said. “I played solid in the second round. I didn’t have my best stuff, but I grinded my way out. It’s great to get my feet wet in the Big Ten Championship.”<\/p>\n “When you have all five guys in the top 40, it shows your depth,” Shutte said. “Argyle battled even without his best stuff, Lucas got off to a great start and looked ready for the moment, and Luke came up clutch late in what could be his final college event. Everyone contributed, and that’s what got us here.”<\/p>\n Rutgers finished at 10-over par in a competitive Big Ten field, with UCLA claiming the team title after holding off a late charge from Illinois.<\/p>\n “It’s tough to see Luke and Jeffrey move on, but we’re really excited about the future,” Shutte said. “These younger guys have gained a lot of experience, especially on a stage like the Big Ten Championships.”<\/p>\n The Scarlet Knights close the Big Ten\u00a02025\u201326 campaign with momentum, highlighted by a historic performance at the conference championships.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gallery: (5-2-2026) Men’s Golf at 2026 Big Ten Championships <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORTH PLAINS, Ore. \u2013 Rutgers men’s golf closed out the 2025\u201326 Big Ten Championships on Sunday at Pumpkin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-646338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}