Cornell’s Golf team finished 6th out of 15 in the Alex Lagowitz Memorial Invitational on Sunday, with an aggregate score of 888 over 54 holes to finish six-over-par.
Ivy League rival Yale University took the team title, finishing with a score 862, while Dugan McCabe of host Colgate University took the individual title with a final score of 2014.
Cornell narrowly missed out on a top five finish, with St. Bonaventure edging out the Red by a single stroke.
Ben Choe ’23 led the Red’s efforts with an individual score of 216 to finish in a tie for fifth place. He scored 73, 72 and 71 over all three rounds, respectively.
Cornell played consistently over the length of the invitational, though their finish was somewhat lackluster. The Red finished the first round in second place with a score of 294, then fell to sixth after posting a 300 in the second round and again a 294 in the third.
Choe sank five birdies in the final round of play, finishing the day under par for the second time in his college career.
“I feel really solid,” Choe said on Monday. “I played really steady golf to give myself a chance to win coming down the stretch, but just needed a couple more birdie putts to drop to win.”
Another highlight of the tournament was junior Josh Lundmark’s eagle on hole five.
“It was actually my first hole of the day and it was one of the easier holes so I wanted to make something happen to get off to a good start,” Lundmark said. “I hit a five iron to about a foot and tapped in for eagle to start my round.”
Choe would later come around to birdie the same hole.
Next up for Cornell Golf is a two-week rest from competition before their own Cornell Invitational beginning on Sept. 19. Though the team will have a chance to rest and recover over the break, they plan on keeping a normal practice schedule to prepare for the upcoming competition.
“Our practice schedule for this week will be the same as if we had a tournament on the weekend,” Choe said. “Everyone on the team will be practicing everyday working on their game.”
Choe explained that the next few weeks will be an intense set of qualifying rounds that would give players a chance to compete for a spot on the travel team. He was hopeful that the team would take advantage of the opportunity.
“We’ll be able to rest up, practice hard and prepare ourselves for our invite for the next two weeks, which is a lot of time for us to get sharp,” Lundmark said.