For men and women’s golfers this weekend, second place was the popular place to be. Both captain Cindy Shin ’07 and Colby Moore ’09 came in second place overall in their respective tournaments, and the women’s team finished right behind Princeton at a tournament in Virginia.
The women’s team traveled this weekend to the Georgetown Women’s Golf Invitational at the Raspberry Falls Golf Club in Leesburg, Va., while the men headed to Maryland for the Lacrosse Homes Collegiate Invitational.
For the second week in a row, the men racked up another fourth-place team finish and a second-place individual finish. The Bulldogs finished fourth of 21 teams with a score of 601 (+25), coming in behind St. John’s, who placed first with a score of 580, only four strokes over par.
Finishing out of first place by only one stroke, Moore shot a 73 the first day and came back the second day with an even stronger performance, shooting two under par (70). The second day brought more experience with the course and less wind to deter shots, so the golfers found it easier capitalize on less difficult holes.
“The front nine was very straightforward and pretty wide open off the tee, so there were a lot of good chances to make birdies,” Moore said. “The back nine was a lot more difficult and penalizing. The wind was a large part of the reason it was tougher the first day.”
The Bulldogs were very encouraged with their performance after finishing above all of the other Ivy schools at the tournament. The other Ancient Eight competitors playing at Maryland included Columbia, who tied for fifth, Cornell, who tied for seventh, and Princeton, who came in tenth.
“It’s awesome beating the three Ivies in the tournament,” captain Mark Matza ’07 said. “The Ivy League has really competitive teams this year, and it is great to be playing well and beating them.”
The next best finisher for Yale was Ben Wescoe ’10, who shot a 73-75-148 to tie for 13th place. The Bulldogs also had strong showings from Matza (77-78-155, T-57th), Taylor Hakes ’09 (76-79-155, T-57th), and Joe Potter ’07 (87-81-168, T-99th).
The Bulldogs hope to get a lot of practice rounds in before they host the Yale Spring Opener this weekend at the Yale Golf Course.
“We are probably going to play as much as we can this week to relearn and get back acclimated to our home course,” Moore said.
The women’s golf team also played well this weekend and finished second overall behind Ivy rival Princeton. The Bulldogs held their position right behind the Tigers for both days.
“It was only our second tournament for the spring season,” Lindsay Hong ’08 said. “We are still trying to figure things out, but we did pretty well overall.”
With a strong two-day performance, Shin shot a 76-75-151 to lead the Elis and tie for second place in a field of 65 golfers. The next best finishers for Yale were Ellie Brophy ’08 (77-78-155) and Hong (80-75-155), followed by Taylor Lee ’10 (77-83-160).
Though the Bulldogs placed second of the 13 teams, they said they still believe improvements can be made, and they hope to come out strong against other Ivy schools at the upcoming Columbia Invitational in Harrison, N.Y.