Cindy Shin ’07 had to carry around a 35-pound golf bag while playing 36 holes of golf on Saturday. Unfortunately for Shin, she still had another day of 18 holes to play.

This weekend, the Bulldogs competed at the Nittany Lion Fall Invitational at Penn State University, tying with Bowling Green State for seventh place. James Madison University took first place at the tournament, trailed closely by Penn State in second. Princeton, the only other Ivy team at the tournament, took fifth overall. Yale’s top individual competitor was Shin, who placed 15th out of all competitors with scores of 74 and 81 on Saturday and 76 on Sunday.

Though the burden of carrying around her own bag was tiring, Shin said her enjoyment of the sport allowed her to play well.

“Each game I try to have fun,” Shin said. “At the same time, though, I want to play well while having a good time out there.”

Collegiate golfers are not allowed to have caddies.

Finishing second among the Elis and 35th overall was January Romero ’06. Romero shot consistent scores of 81, 79, and 82. Tying for 37th place were Lauren Ressler ’06 and Jessica Shapiro ’06 who each shot a total score of 243 this weekend.

Shapiro shot a 76 for her best score on 18 holes this year on the first day of tournament action.

“After being out with mono last spring, I feel like I have been improving each week,” Shapiro said. “I hope to keep getting better and better and to be a strong competitor in the last two tournaments of the fall.”

Though Shapiro said the team was tired after playing 36 holes on the first day, she was not as disappointed as Ressler.

“I was glad to improve a little from last year, but it is tough to compare the two Invites,” Ressler said. “I feel like we have practiced way too hard to be shooting what we did.”

Ressler said she and many of her teammates were frustrated that the team lost to Rollins College. Rollins took third to the Elis’ second place last weekend at home.

“Last weekend Rollins had a major letdown on day two, but they are the Division II national champs and they showed that this weekend,” Ressler said.

Many of the girls are looking forward to their first weekend of rest in three weeks. Shapiro said that it was hard to stay mentally tough after playing so many games in so little time. This weekend’s break from competition should help the Bulldogs focus on their last two tournaments of the fall, the Harvard Invitational and the Mid Pines Intercollegiate.

“This tournament was definitely a reality check for us,” Ressler said. “It was the real deal and we didn’t perform how we wanted to perform. This should be good motivation for us here on out.”