Golf: Payne looks back, ahead on Bonnies career

For most college athletes, the focus is always on the team, with each player or competitor working for a common goal. In the case of golfers like Brennan Payne, the sport demands each player provide his best individual effort, with equal focus on both individual and team success. For Payne, this has come easy.Payne, a senior from Arcade, N.Y., went to Pioneer Central High School where he starred in three sports - basketball, baseball and golf.

He came to St. Bonaventure in 2005 after a successful career on Pioneer Central's golf team in which he was the leader of a golf squad that won three straight Erie County Intercollegiate Conference Division II titles. He was also the youngest winner of the Southwestern New York-Northwestern Pennsylvania Men's Amateur in 2004.

Payne cited former St. Bonaventure golf coach Steve Campbell and the camaraderie of the team as the factors that propelled him to become a Bonnie.

Payne said, "Coming here was the best decision of my life."

Payne has continually improved, cutting his average score per round from 75.8 strokes as a freshman to 75.3 as a junior. He has amassed seven top-10 and 13 top-20 finishes in his Bonaventure career. He earned medalist honors for the first time with a victory at the Little Three Invitational in Buffalo, N.Y. on Sept. 23, while carding a 4-under par 68 at Brierwood Country Club.

The senior said the best performance of his Bonaventure career came at Brierwood C.C.

"I played the course before, so I had a bit of an advantage," he said.

He said he considers last May's 2008 Atlantic 10 Championship in Winter Garden, Fla., to be the greatest moment of his golfing career.

At that event, the team wore pink apparel and sported pink golf bags to support breast cancer research because Campbell's wife and Payne's mother were both fighting the illness at the time. The team finished sixth in the tournament with Payne finishing fifth individually, earning All-Conference honors for the first time.

Head coach Andrew Whalen, a 2008 Bonaventure graduate and current head coach, was at a loss for words.

"(Payne) has the passion, heart and desire to succeed in this game, and life in general," Whalen said.

Whalen said that Payne provided guidance and support for the younger golfers on the squad.

Payne and the Bonnies will host the 20th Annual Leo Keenan Invitational this weekend at Bartlett Country Club, a tournament Bonaventure has won the past three seasons.

Payne said he likes his team's chances of a 'four-peat' in the tournament this weekend, with the Bonnies squaring off against a field that includes Niagara and A-10 rivals Duquesne, Dayton, LaSalle and Temple.