YaleAthletics
Coming off their first victory of the year at the Macdonald Cup last weekend, the Yale men’s golf team extended its winning run with a dominating performance.
The Elis faced off against Brown in a head-to-head at the Misquamicut Club in Watch Hill, R.I. on Saturday, and emerged with ten of the 11 spots on the tournament leaderboard. The stellar display continued the team’s recent strong play.
Eric Hall ’20 carded the best score of the single-day match, finishing with a score of 66, three strokes under par. A cadre of teammates packed in close behind him. The top nine finishers wore the blue and white, as did the 11th-place golfer.
Brown struggled, with Sasha Lobel carding the team’s top score with a mark of +4 and finishing in 10th. The Bears occupied the bottom six spots on the leaderboard, and their top five finishers combined to produce a team score of +38.
By contrast, Yale’s top five golfers compiled an aggregate mark of +1. Captain Will Bernstein ’18 produced a solid performance, ending his round with a two-over-par 71, but reserved even more praise for his teammates.
“Hall and freshman Paul Stankey [’21] played very solid rounds, especially considering they played without a practice round,” Bernstein said.
Eoin Leonard ’19 secured second place with a one-under 68. The junior recently topped the 78-player leaderboard at the Doc Gimmler tournament in early September, and maintained his outstanding form.
“It was pretty close on the first nine holes so the high point was that I was able to pull ahead on the last few holes and secure a solid win,” Leonard said.
Both schools were represented by seven players and kept their five top scores, with three other Elis playing as individuals. Altogether, the Bulldogs handily defeated the Bears, scoring a 343 to Brown’s 384, marking their third triumph over Brown this season. Yale previously defeated Brown at the Macdonald Cup and at the Cornell Invitational.
“It was a great day on a great golf course,” said James Nicholas ’19, who scored a 71, two-over-par. “The match wasn’t that close, but it was good to test our skills under pressure once again.”
Next up for the Bulldogs is the two-day Autotrader.com Classic, held in Duluth, Georgia from Oct. 17 to 18. The event will provide another opportunity for the squad to showcase its depth and talent coming off consecutive wins, including a tight victory over Cornell last week in Ithaca that was decided by a single stroke.
“Given our fall thus far, we feel that we can really compete against those top teams,” Bernstein said. “We will use this week’s momentum going into our last full event in Georgia, as well as our season-ending match in two weeks’ time in Richmond.”
The tournament will be hosted by Georgia State University at the Berkeley Hills Country Club. The players preparing to head south next weekend are Bernstein, Nicholas, Hall, Leonard, Henry Cassriel ’18 and Sean Yi ’21, with Yi competing as an individual.
The tournament will provide a step-up in competition for the Elis, as numerous schools from around the country will participate. Powerhouses Mississippi and South Florida participated in the event a year ago.
“We have all been working really hard,” Nicholas said. “I can wait to see how we match up against some of the best teams in the country when we head to Georgia.”
Alex Reedy | alex.reedy@yale.edu