This past homecoming weekend, Cornell golf traveled to New Hampshire to compete in the Dartmouth Invitational against nine other schools from the Northeast. After securing a fifth-place finish out of 15 teams in last week’s Cornell/Temple Invitational in Pennsylvania, the Red looked to capitalize on its momentum against a talented slate of teams.
A pair of fifth-place finishes in a row is nothing to scoff at given the quality of opponents that the Red has faced, but the talented team has not been satisfied with its results as of late.
“Honestly, at this point, we don’t believe as if we’ve been fully capitalizing on our team’s potential,” said senior Noah Schwartz. “With these last couple events, we really want to make sure that we end off on a strong foot.”
After the first day of competition, senior Josh Lundmark found himself in second place amongst all golfers with a score of one-under-par, leading the way for the fifth-place Red.
“This weekend, Josh was in the lead with eight holes to play,” Schwartz said. “He was really close to taking his first individual win and we were all really hoping he was able to take it. Last week Sam [King] placed top-five and had a chance at winning it as well. Many of us are unsatisfied with the way we played but it’s very exciting to think about what can happen if we put it together.”
Lundmark was assisted by seniors Sam King and Ben Choe, who both tied for 22nd-place with a combined score of 155, and senior Noah Schwartz and sophomore Tyler Zimmer who shot 162 and 167, respectively. Freshman Weston Warden also impressed with a combined score of 160, which was good enough for a 39th-place individual finish.
On day one, Cornell shot a combined 314, but were able to improve to a lofty 303 on the second day to hold on to sole possession of fifth-place, with St. Josephs and Middlebury tied for 6th only a stroke behind the Red.
“Next week, our goals are the same as they have been. Winning is a big thing, but we just need to make sure that we put together four good scores,” Schwartz said. “They take four out of five, and that fourth always ends up killing us. If we can put together four scores in the low 70s, then we have a great shot at winning.”
Cornell will look to continue its fall campaign with forward momentum at the Columbia Autumn Invitational next weekend in Lake Placid, New York.