Honors pile up for Francoeur
Former SJP star now at URI named New England D1 Golfer of the Year
University of Rhode Island head golf coach Gregg Burke can rattle off a list of all the moments he’s shared with Chris Francoeur that helped the junior golfer realize his playing potential.
Last week, that list got a little longer.
Despite a coronavirusshortened season, the former St. John’s Prep star excelled enough in the fall portion of the schedule to earn New England Div. 1 Golfer of the Year. He also earned a spot on the PING All-Northeast Regional team and joined two of his teammates on the Div. 1 All-New England team, adding to an extensive array of accolades that date back to his high school days.
“It is definitely a great feeling, especially with all the good players in New England,” Francoeur said. “(Earning) the player of the year was one of my goals I set going into the season.”
Francoeur placed in the top three in all but one of his five outings. That includes a first-place individual finish in Colgate’s Alex Lagowitz Memorial after recording a 209 through three rounds, which set the tone for his impressive 69.4 scoring average. He also took second in Villanova’s Wildcat Fall Invitational.
Burke feels it’s tough to specifically analyze this season and instead prefers to look at the strides Francoeur’s made as a studentathlete ever since the coach started to recruit him at age 16. Athletically, Burke says Francoeur came into the program able to do anything with a golf ball except play the hole. But he’s seen drastic growth in the junior’s preparation since then, from the weight room to logging every swing, and Burke recognizes Francoeur’s potential to play in the PGA Tour.
In fact, the 15-year head coach believes Francoeur and former URI star Billy Walthouse are the best to ever do it for the Rams.
“To say what I saw this year is almost an unfair evaluation because I’ve seen this coming for four and a half years,” he said. “(When we got him) he lacked a little discipline because he was always able to thrive — not just survive — thrive on his God-given talent. And I think if we’ve done anything for (Francoeur), it’s that we’ve taught him discipline and how to play golf holes.
“He’s a monster athlete. If not the best, he’s one of the very best athletes playing golf in the history of URI … He believed in our culture, he believed that we could make him potentially into a PGA Tour player. The hardest thing is to understand it, the easiest thing is to invest. And he’s invested. His core strength and mobility strength are off the charts, not because he’s a great athlete, but he became a great worker.”
Receiving hardware for his performance isn’t exactly new to Francoeur. Before also earning New England Rookie of the Year in 2017-18 for URI, Francoeur was a four-time Catholic Conference All-Star at St. John’s Prep, helping lead the Eagles to two Div. 1 state championships and four conference titles. He also won the individual Div. 1 North title in 2015.
Between his success in high school to achieving his impressive feats at the collegiate level, Francoeur admires his place in the SJP and URI programs.
“St. John’s Prep definitely prepared me for college extremely well,” he said. “The sports and academics at SJP are unmatched, which made the transition to URI a lot easier. At URI, we all work very hard as a team in the weight room and on the course, which has really helped me grow my game to the next level.”
If the course of his athletic career so far is any indication, it doesn’t look like that growth will stop anytime soon, either. Burke believes in Francoeur’s ability to reach whatever heights the junior sets to reach.
This year, it was New England Player of the Year. Next year, only Francoeur knows.