Everything that the golf team has worked towards throughout the course of the year comes down to this weekend at the Ivy League Championships in Springfield, N.J.
The tournament will be played at Baltusrol Golf Club, a course that has hosted PGA Tour tournaments in years past. There, the Red will take on the rest of the Ancient Eight squads in a three-round tournament for the outright league title.
After a long season dating back to September, the squad feels confident in its abilities and is ready to show the rest of the conference what it is capable of.
“The team feels good,” said junior Dan Bosse. “We want to prove to the rest [of the Ivy League] that we’re the best team out there.”
The five members of the team who will be representing the Red are senior Robert Cronheim, juniors Matt Jaye and Bosse, and sophomores Mark Baity and John Dean. Both Cronheim and Baity live near the course and have played in it on previous occasions, something the Red plans to use to its advantage.
“I’ve played it a lot, it’s five minutes from house,” Cronheim said. “It’s a pretty standard northeast tree line, championship golf course.”
“The fact that [Cronheim and Baity] have such experience on the course should really helps us,” Bosse added. “They can pass any knowledge they have on to us throughoutour practice round and just in general.”
There is no denying that there is an added sense of pressure and intensity throughout the week leading up to the Ivy Championships. The Red is well aware of the fact that if it does not win, its season is over.
“There’s definitely more of an emphasis on the week leading up to Ivies,” Bosse said. “We obviously want to prepare as best as we can because it’s essentially our season. You can win every tournament during the season, but if you don’t play well at Ivies, you don’t advance [to the NCAA Regional’s] and your season is over. And on the other hand, youcan play poorly all year long, but if you win Ivies, you’re moving on.”
Being the lone senior on the team, Cronheim is not contemplating the fact that this could be his last collegiate tournament.
“It’s business as always for me,” Cronheim said. “I’m doing what I always do; no different than any other week.”
Though it has not yet won any tournaments, the team has proved to the rest on the field and most importantly to themselves that its raw talent is as good as anybody’s.
On multiple occasions the squad has posted low scores to compete with the best teams at tournaments, only to have a bad round derail its chances. Ultimately, the Red feel poised to string some low scores together and compete for the title.
“We’ve had a really good week of practice,” Bosse said. “We’ve all put in a lot of time; we know that if we can put some consistent rounds with some lows scores together, we have the capability to make a run. Hopefully it will all pay off in the end.”
Original Author: Ware Cady