MEN’S GOLF: Bulldogs celebrate golf in New York with Columbia, HYP
Yale men’s golf first competed against Columbia and then Harvard and Princeton in a weekend full of Ivy League traditions.
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The Yale men’s golf team met Columbia first, then Harvard and Princeton in two historic Ivy League golf events over the weekend in New York.
The Bulldogs commemorated the 125th anniversary of the first intercollegiate golf match on Friday at the St. Andrew’s Club in Hastings-on-Hudson. The match, played against Columbia, was organized in a holes-won format where Yale lost 15–2. On Sunday, the Elis traveled to the Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Briarcliff Manor and triumphed against Harvard and Princeton in a three-ball, alternating shot contest.
“The matches last week were fun,” Gabriel Ruiz Trevino ’24 said. “[It’s] always a good time to face off against our Ivy rivals [and a] good way to end the fall season.”
Typical collegiate competitions determine tournament rankings by comparing team shot totals to course pars. The Yale-Columbia match used a holes-won format where individual players faced off and a team total was calculated from the margin of victory in each individual match. In 1896, the Bulldogs trounced the Lions with a score of 35–0 to win the first intercollegiate golf match, but the Elis were unable to repeat the feat and came short this year.
Ruiz and Darren Lin ’22 earned Yale’s points by each winning their games by one while rookie Ben Carpenter ’25 drew 7–7 in his match. The Yale–Columbia match was not an official golf tournament.
“We had a really fun weekend,” Carpenter said. “It’s not often we get to play match play against our rival schools, especially at a course like Sleepy Hollow. We had a solid showing as a team and I personally really enjoyed the alternate shot format we played.”
Sunday’s match also followed a nontraditional format as Harvard, Yale and Princeton faced off in two rounds of three-ball, alternating shots. In the morning, the Tigers defeated the Bulldogs 2.5–1.5. In the same round, the Bulldogs would go on to win against the Crimson by the same scoreline. In the afternoon, the Elis fell to Princeton with a score of 4.5–3.5, but won the match against Harvard 6–2.
Ultimately, the Bulldogs came out ahead of their Ancient Eight rivals by earning 9.5 points throughout the two rounds. Princeton placed second with a total of 9 points while Harvard tailed the two with a score of 5.5.
“Sunday was also a great day of golf, getting to play head to head with Harvard and Princeton,” men’s golf captain Teddy Zinsner ’22 said. “It was a great team effort to come through with the most total points and I definitely would want to shout out our freshman who really played well and contributed a lot to our success during the day.”
Yale men’s golf will resume its season in the spring.