After 34 years of hard work but no results, the Yale men’s golf team finally took home the hardware last weekend in the MacDonald Cup with a first-place overall finish. The record-breaking team score of 842 on home turf gave Yale men’s golf its biggest victory since the Ivy Championship in 2004.

“[Our victory] is a credit in part to the weather, which was cooperative, to the terrific course set-up by superintendent Scott Ramsay and also to the strong work ethic of the team in their preparation for this event,” head coach Colin Sheehan ’97 said.

Tom McCarthy ’11 led the pack with his first-place finish, shooting a 204. McCarthy shot under par on the par-70 course in each of the three rounds of play.

“This was Tom’s first collegiate win, and no one deserves it more than he does,” captain Ben Wescoe ’10 said. “He is one of our best players. To do what he did on our home course at our fall invitational against tough competition is very impressive. I could not be more proud of him.”

McCarthy, too, was particularly elated about his win.

“I’ve been waiting and waiting, I’ve come close, but I’d never pulled [a first place finish] off until today,” McCarthy said. “It was really special to have the team, Ben and me win all in the same tournament.”

Wescoe took second place in the tourney with an impressive career-low 205 finish.

“For me, being a senior and captain of the team, this is extremely special, and it’s an honor to win,” Wescoe said.

Brandon Marick ’11 took 14th place, shooting a 214, Brad Kushner ’13 took 49th with a 223 and Carson Weinand ’13 took 51st with a 224 finish.

Iowa State, a Big 12 Conference team ranked 56th nationally, took second place, three strokes behind Yale. The Bulldogs also beat Harvard, which finished in sixth place, and Dartmouth, who finished ninth and against whom the Elis lost last weekend. In all, 14 teams competed.

“We dedicate this win to coach David Paterson, who started this tournament and worked tirelessly to build it to the stature it presently has,” Sheehan said. “We won this year based on the achievements of Ben and Tom, who Coach Paterson recruited to come to Yale. We are very grateful to have inherited Coach Paterson’s personnel.”

On the contrary, the Yale women’s golf team struggled at the Nittany Lion Invitational at Penn State this weekend. The Bulldogs battled windy, cold conditions on a soggy course to finish in eighth place with a combined score of 942 on the par-72 course.

Their end result followed a strong second-round sixth-place finish Saturday. The Bulldogs were only three strokes away from joining the top three at that point in the tournament.

However, with each Yale competitor shooting at least one round in the 80s, the Bulldogs would never catch up to Rollins College, which won the tournament with a 909.

Yale did beat the only other Ivy competitor, Columbia, which took ninth place in the tournament. In all, 16 teams competed in the tournament.

Callie Kemmer ’12 had the lowest score for the Bulldogs, shooting a 234 and finishing 16th. Harriet Owers-Bradley ’11 shot a 236 and took 26th place; Cassie Boles ’11 shot a 237 and took 33rd place; Alexandra Lipa ’13 shot a 240 to take 42nd place; Lily Boettcher ’12 shot a 249, earning 68th place.

“I know that no one played as well as she had hoped to play,” Kemmer said. “Everyone worked through it and tried to do the best she could. We’re ready to go to practice and work hard for our next tournament.”

Among the teams competing, Yale was ranked in second place going into the tournament.

“There was a lot of potential,” Owers-Bradley said. “We had some low rounds. We just need to get rid of the high ones … We all know what we have to work on.”

Head coach Chawwadee Rompothong ’00 pointed to putting as the culprit for the weekend’s high scores.

“We are going to focus even more on our short game, but mainly a lot of five-foot putts,” Rompothong said. “There were a lot of missed opportunities in the tournament. We will do a lot of drills to work on technique and confidence … It was a tougher tournament, but I think we could’ve done a lot better than we did.”

The women of Yale golf will compete in the Lehigh Invitational Oct. 17 and 18.

This weekend the men’s squad will take on The Big Five in Philadelphia, Penn.