Coming off two top-three finishes to begin the 2019 fall season, the Red didn’t fare as well this past weekend at the Dartmouth Invitational.
After two rounds at Hanover Country Club, Cornell concluded the tournament with an eighth-place finish in the 12-team field.
Junior Charlie Dubiel led Cornell, finishing the weekend at three-under par, his third consecutive top-10 finish. Dubiel secured a seventh-place finish after placing fourth and seventh in the previous two tournaments, respectively.
“I don’t want to call the golf course easy because Hanover Country Club definitely has a few really difficult shots, but beyond those few holes, you can really get after it,” Dubiel said. “I struck the ball really well all week and never made a big mistake, so I definitely felt like I could have finished even better than I did.”
Senior Jack Casler had gotten off to a hot start to begin the year, with two seventh-place finishes; however, he was unable to continue his early success at the Dartmouth Invitational, completing the two rounds at nine over par, good for 57th place.
The remaining three Cornell golfers — all freshmen — were Benjamin Choe, Josh Lundmark and Sam King. Lundmark led the three neophytes at two over par. Choe, making his first career start, ended at three over par, while King finished at eight over par.
Martin Gutierrez, also a freshman, played as an individual and shot four over par; but since he was designated as an individual, his score did not count in Cornell’s final total of 577.
“Going into the weekend, we kind of had it figured out that double digits under par could win as a team,” Dubiel said. “It’s easy to panic a bit and try to force shots and make up ground, and all of a sudden you shoot a 75 or a 76 instead of a 71 or a 72, which makes a big difference for the team when two or three guys do that.”
Drexel left Hanover with the crown, compiling a team score of 557. Cornell finished in third place among the four Ivy League schools competing. Dartmouth, the host school, shot 564 and Harvard ended at 574. Cornell was able to edge Brown, which completed the two rounds at 597.
After playing tournaments on three consecutive weekends, Cornell will not be in action this weekend. After the off weekend, Cornell concludes its fall season October 7-8 at the Hampton Intercollegiate.