SEASON RECAP: New Arrivals Bring Fresh Life to Crimson

Although the Harvard men’s golf team struggled through a number of mediocre tournament finishes in the fall and spring seasons, stellar individual rounds from some of the team’s youngest contributors hint at a bright future ahead.

In the Ivy League Championships last month, the Crimson finished in fifth place out of eight teams. On the following weekend, Harvard captured third place at the Northeast Invitational in Portsmouth, R.I., its best finish of the season.

Despite finishing in the bottom half of the field in six tournaments, the Crimson regarded this year as laying the groundwork for future success.

“Significant improvement and gaining experience was what this season was all about,” captain Tom Hegge said.

Throughout the fall season, Harvard introduced five freshmen to the athletic, academic, and social challenges of college golf. From the start, the team called on them to produce results.

Freshmen Danny Mayer and Greg Shuman competed for the Crimson in all five fall tournaments, and freshman Peter Singh made four appearances.

At the McLaughlin, the first event of the fall, in which the team finished in 12th place, Mayer’s three-under 67 would prove to be the team’s lowest score of the season.

At the Yale Invitational, the first spring event, Harvard held a two-stroke lead after round one but fell to sixth place overall after posting a combined score of 312 on the second day.

The round-two struggles revealed a frustrating inconsistency, but even establishing the opportunity to win represents significant progress for the upstart Crimson.

“For the last couple of years, we haven’t been in the position to win a tournament,” Hegge said. “That encapsulates our season. We were always there, we couldn’t quite get over the edge.”

Between the two seasons, Harvard’s players carded three below-par rounds, and Shuman was named All-Ivy.

During the Ivy League Championship, Shuman came agonizingly close to individual victory when he entered the final round in the lead.

Despite a great season and his All-Ivy status, Shuman realizes that the Ivy League Championships is the defining moment of the season.

“It was still very gratifying, but it was frustrating,” Shuman said. “I did see the potential that I have to play well in big tournaments, but I obviously I need to improve.”

On the next weekend, Shuman took second place at the Northeast Invitational and could have won had he birdied the finishing hole.

With the spark from the newcomers, the Crimson stands a greater chance to win on any given weekend.

“Now we have three or four guys who can come in under par. That’s a good feeling,” Hegge said. “If our No. 1 guy doesn’t shoot even [par] or around there, we’ve shown we have plenty of people who can pick up the slack.”

As the cycle of Harvard golf begins anew next fall, Harvard hopes that all of its player development this year will finally translate into long-awaited victories.

—Staff writer Robert T. Hamlin can be reached at rhamlin@fas.harvard.edu.