The golf team finished its season this past weekend at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, M.D., at the Ivy League Championship. The Red tied for last, but was just +37 strokes off the lead in the three-round tournament. Princeton finished first with 883 total strokes, five shots less than Yale and six less than Penn; the Tigers entered the last round of play in fourth place, but recorded the lowest single round for any team, a combined 288 strokes.
Despite a disappointing finish, the team learned from the experience and expects to be stronger next year, according to junior tri-captain Max Koehler.
“It was a lot of fun … but it was a long tournament and I feel like we lost focus,” Koehler said. “We could have played better, but we’ll take away some things we learned from this tournament and get ready to make some changes for next year.”
Juniors Zack Bosse and Carl Schimenti finished +17 and +18, good for the 18th and 20th best individual scores respectively. Carl carded the lowest single score of the tournament, recording a 74 in the first round of play. The top individual performer was Princeton junior Greg Jarmas, who finished just three-over par for the tournament.
Although the Red was out of contention in the final day, the field was very competitive and wide open for any team to win; the top five teams were within 13 strokes of each other.
“It was really exciting at the very end because a lot of teams had a chance to win it,” Koehler said. “There were a lot of big swings on the final day that kept it interesting. It just shows the depth of the Ivy League — anyone can win on any given day.”
Since four of the five golfers representing the Red are juniors — Koehler, Schimenti, Bosse and tri-captain Craig Esposito — and the remaining player is freshman Brandon Eng, the Red will have plenty of experience going into next year. The team has high hopes, as the core of the team will be back for their final year.
“The three juniors have been together [for] the last three years playing together,” Koehler said. “Next year, we’ll expect more from ourselves. Hopefully we can get some good work in this summer and come in ready for the post-season and go out in style.”
Original Author: Albert Liao