URI Golf Signs 3 to National Letters of Intent
The University of Rhode Island Golf team signed three players to National Letters of Intent on Wednesday, head coach Gregg Burke announced.
The three players are IMG Academy’s Tony Liu, Canisius High School’s Owen Rooney and West Island College High School’s Josiah Tong.
“This is clearly one of the top-two or three recruiting classes in my 12 years. Certainly, getting Billy Walthouse and Joe Leavitt in the same year, or Austin Fox and Brandon Gillis in the same year, is tough to beat, but as ‘recruits’ this group is pretty competitive. Obviously, the only way to truly evaluate a recruited class though is after its last collegiate tournament,” said head coach Gregg Burke.
All three players will join the URI Team in the fall of 2023.
Tony Liu
Liu is from Bradenton, Florida and attends IMG Academy.
According to URI’s press release, he did not consider any other schools before choosing Rhode Island.
“Tony is an absolute delight. He is incredibly mature for his young age and will be exemplary on the golf course and in the classroom. An IMG player, and one of the best in the academy right now, he has all the tools to play at the next level. He has been ranked among the top 300 players in North America by each of the three junior golf rating services. We have never had anyone with those rankings. The sky is the limit for Tony,” said Burke.
On the course, Liu won the 2021 IMG Academy Junior World Florida Challenge.
He finished second at the 2021 Golfweek International Junior Invitational and turned in three top-10 finishes in AJGA events.
Owen Rooney
Rooney is from Buffalo, New York and Canisius High School and IMG Academy.
Rooney chose Rhode Island over Seattle and St. Bonaventure.
“Owen is that young man who will fit in immediately for his personality, dedication to academics and work ethic. He has shown tremendous improvement in the year he spent at IMG after high school. He has a chance to start very early in his career simply because he knows the value of every shot and rarely makes a big score,” said Burke.
Rooney was ranked the number one golfer in New York by Junior Golf Scoreboard.
He had a scoring average of 72.6 during the season.
Rooney has qualified for the New York State Men’s Amateur in each of the last two years.
Josiah Tong
Tong comes from Heritage Pointe, Alberta Canada and West Island College High School.
He chose Rhode Island over a slew of other schools including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia, Mercer, Butler, Iona and Towson.
“Josiah is a young man of incredible purpose. He will be one of the best students we have ever had and is completely dedicated to excellence in all that he pursues. He transitioned from a nationally-ranked badminton player to golf seamlessly. He is tall, strong, and athletic. He generates tremendous Trackman numbers and has tremendous swing speed. He is very new to high-end competitive golf but clearly has a chance to be a four-year starter as he learns more about course management,” said Burke.
On the course, Tong achieved a #1 ranking for Golf Alberta 2020 OOM (state/province) and had a #4 ranking MJT National Juvenile 2021 OOM (Canada).
He won two championships in 2020 (Golf Alberta McLennan Ross Jr Tour Mundare/Whitetail U15 and Heritage Pointe Club Championship-Black Flight) and eight in 2021 (University of Florida HJGT College Prep Bantam, MJT Carstairs Juvenile, Golf Alberta McLennan Ross Junior Tour Canmore, Golf Alberta McLennan Ross Junior Tour Goose Hummock, MJT Meadowlands Sylvan Lake, Golf Alberta U17 McLennan Ross Junior Tour, CISAA Individual).