In two contests for the Yale golf program, the men and women’s teams both secured second-place finishes this past weekend.
After taking 10th place at the Linger Longer Invitational in Greensboro, Ga., the men’s golf squad bounced back for a runner-up finish at the Met Invitational, which the Elis hosted in Purchase, N.Y. The Bulldogs finished second to No. 5 Georgia and beat out the archrival Crimson by five strokes after the single day, 36-hole showdown. Two members of the men’s golf program cited challenging wind as an obstacle they had to overcome to earn the second-place finish.
“The conditions were nearly unplayable, with wind gusts in excess of 30 miles per hour,” Will Davenport ’15 said. “It was a real mental grind. The morning course was not in great condition, and it was certainly difficult to play through that while battling the conditions.”
Despite the trials posed by uncooperative weather, captain Sam Bernstein ’14 repeated an exceptional individual performance and ended the tournament in a tie for second. At last years’ tournament, he tied for fourth.
Bernstein shot a 72 and 74 in the first and second rounds, respectively, for an overall score of 146.
“Overall, my game was very solid on Saturday,” Bernstein said. “I did not do anything particularly great, but I continued to leave myself in good position around the golf course and as a result, I did not make any big numbers.”
Sean Gaudette ’14 was the second-best finisher for the Elis, tying for seventh place with two Princetonians with a score of 153 for two rounds. Jonathan Lai ’17 came next, putting together a round of 74 and a round of 81 for a total score of 155 and tying for 12th place in the tournament.
Yale beat out all five Ivy competitors present, including Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell and Brown, which finished third, fourth, sixth, seventh and last, respectively.
In a similar fashion, the women’s program bounced back from its lowest finish of the 2013-2014 season last weekend at the Hoya Invitational in Maryland to clinch second place at the Pirate Invitational in Springfield, N.J. On top of the improvement over the past weekend, the Elis came back from a fourth-place position at the end of day one to take second by the end of day two.
“I think the team was definitely looking at winning the tournament going into the weekend,” Shreya Ghei ’15 said. “Though we did not win the event, we are happy that we recovered from a bad first round and were able to come in second place.”
Seo Hee Moon ’14 and Sandy Wongwaiwate ’17 performed best for Yale, tying for third place overall and solidifying two top-five finishes for the Elis. Moon improved from her first round of 79 to a score of 74 and finished with a total score of 153. Wongwaiwate remained fairly consistent, putting up scores of 77 and 76 in the first and second rounds, respectively, for the same total score.
The contest was tight, with a narrow point spread between the top five team finishes. Columbia was first with a score of 631, Yale was just one point below at 632, Princeton came in with a score of 635, St. John’s followed at 636 and host Seton Hall finished with 639.
The women’s program will take a break from competition until the Ivy League Championships April 25-27, while the men’s golf team will compete in both the Princeton Invitational and the Yale Spring Opener before competing in Ivies.