Sophomores Shine in Summer State Tournaments

While most Harvard students were busy with internships and summer classes this past July, sophomore golfers Sarah Harvey and Claire Sheldon were padding their resumes in a different way—by taking home top honors in the Virginia and Massachusetts state amateur tournaments.

Harvey had “no expectations of winning” the title at the Virginia Women’s Amateur, though she had played well enough in the tournament in years past to advance to the US Women’s Amateur tournament. She used her prior experience in match play tournaments and a little advice from Harvard coach Kevin Rhoads to help her achieve success.

This year, Coach Rhoads chose the book Golf is Not a Game of Perfect by sports psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella for his team’s summer reading assignment.

Harvey took the advice to heart and emphasized “wedges, chipping and putting” in practice. She says that her improved short game wound up winning her the tournament.

Harvey also had the benefit of a friendly face on the course—her sister’s. In fact, Lauren Doughtie, Harvey’s competition in the final round of the tournament, turned out to be the player who had ousted her sister in the early rounds.

Harvey’s tightest match came in the quarterfinals, when the final putt was the decider between advancing and going home.

She was “lucky or skilled enough to make it,” and went on to play her best golf in the semifinals, where she shot four-under on the back nine to come in with a 70 for the day.

Though neither Harvey nor Doughtie played at their best in the finals, Harvey’s putting allowed her to seal the victory and avenge her sister’s early exit from the tournament.

Sheldon’s experience at the WGAM Massachusetts Amateur tournament was in many ways similar to Harvey’s success in Virginia. She had played in the event a few times before, and also struggled in the early rounds before building the confidence to “play [her] own game” later in the tournament.

Putting past struggles behind her, Sheldon never trailed in her final match against Tara Joy Connelly.

The Massachusetts tournament was held at The Country Club in Brookline, which happens to be Sheldon’s home course. She says that she can’t play her best “when thinking about an outcome or end result,” and in trying not to harbor any expectations for herself, “didn’t prepare any differently than for any other tournament.”

Coach Rhoads is pleased that his golfers do not seem to feel any additional pressure after their summer successes.

Winning a tournament “doesn’t change what you’re about—you just go out and play the next day,” he says.

His golfers, however, believe that they learned something valuable this summer.

“The competitive mindset is what really matters when preparing for collegiate events,” Harvey says, and the individual nature of a match play tournament certainly helped her hone that skill.

Sheldon acknowledges that her victory did inevitably raise her personal expectations, but she tries to think of it as a “confidence-builder” to draw on in future tournaments.

Coach Rhoads is looking to Harvey and Sheldon to build off of their impressive freshman seasons, which saw them each travel to nearly every team tournament.

He praises them for their enthusiasm and leadership, adding that they are “the type of people their teammates want to follow.”

The women’s golf team started its fall season with a convincing win at the Dartmouth Invitational and followed up last weekend with a slightly disappointing Princeton tournament, in which they tied for third place.

Although the team was “not as sharp as we wanted to be” at Princeton, its performance is “a good indicator of where we are and what we need to do this year,” Rhoads says.

Harvey is looking forward to the Ivy championships in the spring season, because she thinks the Crimson is ready to take home the title.

The depth of the team means that “we are more competitive against one another, which should make us better in the long run,” she says.

Coach Rhoads emphasizes that it is “a great honor for [Harvey and Sheldon] to be singled out,” but the team remains focused on the Yale tournament this weekend and the ECAC championships over Columbus Day weekend.

“We have high expectations, but we have fun,” Sheldon says. “And the rest takes care of itself.”