Freshmen Add Spark, Lead Men's Golf Through Fall Season

Normally the fall season comes and goes for most collegiate golf teams as they patiently wait for the all-important spring season.

This year the Harvard golf team and its four new freshmen have decided to change that tradition.

Taking the reigns in its first three tournaments of the year, the Crimson has demonstrated an excitement and vitality which has been starkly absent from the program in recent years.

"This year has been really exciting especially for someone who has been around for someone who has been around when the team hasn't had a clear focus," said junior Doug MacBean. "Now everyone takes it very serious and everyone knows that we are a legitimate challenger for the lvies."

The shot of esprit de corps into the Harvard team can no doubt be attributed to the influx of youth. With all four freshmen continually popping up on the leader board, the Crimson finally has depth--something which it has so sorely lacked.

"We really didn't know how much depth we would have this year," said co-captain Andy Rourque. "We were hurting for some young talent and we didn't know who exactly would come out for the team. But after the first day they showed that they could really compete."

After a disappointing fifth-place finish at last year's Ivy Tournament compiled with the loss of the team's top golfer--Luis Sanchez '97--the future indeed looked grim for the Crimson.

"This kind of ends the downward streak of losing talent," Rourque said. "My freshman year we had a strong team, but ever since then it seems like we lose the top two players to graduation."

So who would have bet on a bunch of freshmen?

"I don't enter anything unless I can win or make a contribution," said freshman Tim Deardourff, who shot an impressive 155 in his first two tournaments for the Crimson. "I noticed that there was a change in attitude the second the four freshmen came on the scene. We showed [the upperclassmen] that we could play and so the other guys stepped up their level of play."

It was this drive which has transformed what has been a struggling, anemic program into one which has the potential to challenge for the top spot in the Ivy League.

"[The freshmen] are incredibly dedicated, incredibly enthusiastic," MacBean said. "Everyday they want to go out there they don't understand why Harvard isn't the best. They are coming in at a time when the team has a new look and a new dedication to taking hold of the Ivy League."

Even though Harvard finished fifth, sixth and 12th in its only fall tournaments, potential did peak its head through the cobwebs of a rebuilding stigma.

After having a disastrous first day at the Dartmouth Invitational, for instance, Harvard stormed back in the next round with a solid score of 296. Not only did co-captain Alex Gonzalez shoot a team-best 73, but every Crimson golfer broke the 80-stroke barrier that day, bringing Harvard to only three strokes behind Ivy foe Dartmouth.

"At Dartmouth we had a bad first day, but it was the first round of the whole year," MacBean said. "Everyone played well, but as a team those two or three shots isn't a lot and it just shows how close we are."

And once again at the Toski Invitational just one week later, it was a mix of experience and youth which drove the Crimson to an even better finish.

With Gonzalez out in front with a two-day total of 152 (78-74) and Deardourff not far behind with a 155 (77-78), Harvard edged out Dartmouth by two and was a mere 12 points behind Northeast power Yale.

There was no doubt that the Crimson was making a statement.

"[The fall tournaments] are important for setting the stage for the spring," MacBean said. "It lets other teams look at us, and for us to say that we are right here, we are going to be a force to be reckon with when the spring comes around."

Just how far this team can go remains to be played out in the spring, but as it stands, the Crimson has given itself a much-needed transformation.

"We are just as competitive as any other team," Deardourff said. "What I tried to do is say that we can beat Yale...there is no reason why when we tee it up we can't beat anyone out there."

"There is really no limit, we have the players we need," said freshman Matt Dost, who shot a team-best 147 at the Dartmouth Tournament. "There are more good players [on this team], but it is still the same idea--you have to shoot good scores to finish high."

With the fall season behind them and a long winter of contemplation in the foreground, Harvard enters its break like never before.

"The best part of the fall is that we get to sit out the winter with a positive attitude," Rourque said. "And then when we begin again in the spring the attitude will be positive.

"We finished in the top ten in the Northeast [this fall] and we felt that we had the opportunity to win every tournament we played in. I haven't felt that way since freshmen year."

After a long wait, it appears that Harvard golf is finally going through a changing of the guards.