This past weekend Phil Mickelson broke his winless streak at major events by winning The Masters at Augusta National.
This weekend the golf team will try to break its streak of 20 consecutive last place finishes at the Ivy League championship at the Metedeconk National Golf Course in Jackson, N.J.
“We can only improve,” said junior Kevin Scelfo. “We’re only getting better.” Scelfo was the Red’s top golfer in the squad’s first event of the spring season, as he shot a 226 in the three rounds of competition at the Towson Classic. Scelfo ended competition in 39th place in the 97-player field.
The round of the weekend for the Red was a one-under par 71 by senior Chris Rogalski, which was good for third place on the day.
Sophomore Andrew Turker led the way for the Red at the squad’s second competition of the spring, the Lafayette Invitational, as he shot a 153 over two rounds to finish tied for 24th place.
Scelfo, who finished the first day of the competition in 11th place, slipped down to a tie for 29th place due to his second-round 80.
As a whole, the Red finished the event tied for 16th place in the 24-team field after shooting a 315 on the first day and a 316 on the second, to give the team a 631 for the weekend.
Despite the two lackluster finishes this spring, the team is confident that it can improve this weekend.
“Everyone’s healthy right now, and we’re all in good spirits,” Rogalski said. “I don’t see why we can’t improve this year.”
Rogalski is confident of the team’s chances because of the new training style the team has adopted as well.
“The 36 holes we are playing this Saturday is where our strength and conditioning at [the] Friedman [Strength and Conditioning Center] is really going to come into play,” he said. “We’ve really stepped up the cardio this season with our conditioning coach Sean.”
Rogalski also mentioned how he expected certain players on the team to have strong weekends and finish in the top 10 to achieve All-Ivy status.
“It would be great for anybody to finish All-Ivy,” Rogalski said. “If he plays consistent and strong, I could see Pookie [Kevin Scelfo] finishing in that position.”
Scelfo will most likely be chasing after Brian Kim of Yale, who was last year’s individual champion. Yale won last year’s championships as a team, shooting 11 less shots than second-place Penn.
Archived article by Christopher Mascaro
Sun Assistant Sports Editor