Men's Golf Finishes Amongst Pack

Age and experience are valuable commodities for the Harvard men’s golf team.

With a balanced team of upperclassmen and freshmen, the Crimson finished 11th at the New England Intercollegiate Golf Association Championships held Monday and yesterday in Brewster, Massachusetts.

The Harvard squad featured captain D.J. Hynes, senior James Cleary, junior Tom Hegge, and two freshmen, Michael Shore and John Christensen.

The Crimson shot a combined 627 over two days of competition to finish 11th out of 45 teams, 35 strokes behind tournament champion, the University of Rhode Island.

Hynes stepped up in his role as captain to record the Crimson’s best individual performance with scores of 75 and 74, while finishing tied for eighth overall at five over par.

In the tournament overall, scores were higher than average at the NEIGA Championships, as competitors had to contend with difficult course conditions.

“The wind was the main factor both days, which made scoring tough,” Hynes said. “The course was lined with trees, so if you hit a bad shot, the wind would take it into the woods. There was no chance of getting away with a bad shot on this course.”

Despite the course conditions, the Crimson played fairly well.

The squad rebounded from a difficult opening round to shoot a combined 309 on the second day, a nine-stroke improvement.

Hegge, who turned in his highest score of the year with an opening round 85, recovered to club a second-round 75 to finish tied with teammate John Christensen in 67th place.

Michael Shore, who has shown flashes of brilliance this year, shot a combined 158 (77-81) to finish play tied 49th.

A top-10 showing narrowly eluded the Crimson, but many team members felt that a stronger performance was within reach.

“The team could’ve done a lot better,” Shore said. “We threw away a bunch of shots. For myself, it was a lot of mental mistakes. It was a course unlike other courses we’ve played this fall, but the course shouldn’t have affected us that much. We all shot above our individual season stroke averages.”

With the NEIGA Championships over, the Crimson now looks ahead to the Toski Invitational this weekend in Amherst.

It is the last tournament of the fall season, and Harvard is eager to enter the spring with a strong performance.

“We’ve always done well in this tournament,” Hegge said.

The Crimson have traditionally played well at the Toski Invitational, finishing second last year and third in 2003.