This past weekend, the Cornell men’s golf team finished fourth as a team in the Ivy golf championships. The men came off a strong showing at Yale last weekend, where they placed in the top five amongst all teams. Junior Luke Graboyes was able to notch his third top-five finish of the season, furthering his claim as one of the Red’s most consistent players this season.
Graboyes performed remarkably well at Metedeconk National Golf Club this past weekend, and earned himself a medal, making himself the first Cornellian golf medalist since 1986.
“I think that Luke really deserves it,” said captain Brandon Eng ’16, “We’re really proud of him and we’re excited to see what he does next year as well.”
Sophomore Mike Graboyes performed admirably as well, coming in eight, and giving the brothers All-Ivy League honors again in back-to-back seasons. The Red finished fourth overall, which is the best showing at the Ivy championships since 2005. The team finished just one stroke behind third place Yale. In fact, just six strokes separated third and sixth place, in what was an extremely competitive and close contest this past weekend.
“It was actually a little disappointing because we were only one shot away from third place,” said senior Brandon Eng. “Obviously it feels good to have placed higher than in the past, but the team is still looking to do even better.”
The difference between Cornell and first place Harvard ended up being a mere 13 shots across the tournament, which roughly translates to about one shot per day.
“Harvard had a really good first day which put them in the lead,” remarked Eng. “The rest of the days, we contended with them and even gained some strokes back to close their lead, but since they did so well the first day, it was challenging to catch up.”
Eng himself got off to a slow start, but remained resilient, and eventually carded in Cornell’s best round on Sunday, despite starting with two bogeys.
“I think the key was not getting so down on myself when I played so bad the previous day,” Eng said. “I knew I could play well, it was just unfortunate that I played poorly at the times that I did.”
This match wraps up the season for Cornell men’s golf, as they seek the so far elusive Ivy League title.