Harvard Finishes Sixth at Final Invite

The Harvard men’s golf team travelled to Portsmouth, R.I. for its final tournament of the year and finished sixth in the Northeast Invitational.

A field of 10 schools gathered to play 36 holes on Friday afternoon under sunny skies.

Bryant University won the day, posting two rounds of quality golf, 295-295. Sacred Heart followed with a score of 293-300, finishing in second by just three shots. Central Connecticut and Quinnipiac tied for third, posting 298-310 and 293-315, respectively. Host Rhode Island pulled in at fifth, shooting 302-314, and Harvard found its place in sixth, 307-314.

After the first round, Sacred Heart and Quinnipiac were tied for first, besting Bryant by two shots in the first 18 holes. Bryant’s resurgent second round in which its shot five under Sacred Heart earned the Bulldogs the win. In the second round, no other school shot under 300.

“It was good to get everybody playing, but we weren’t that pleased with the result,” junior captain Michael Shore said. “It was a pretty straightforward course, and the weather was okay. All in all we had a good spring, but we can’t be that pleased. We can’t be complacent. We need to look forward and work on our games in the summer.”

For Harvard, sophomore Danny Mayer turned in another impressive individual performance. Finishing ninth overall, Mayer shot 73-77-150, one shot off of eighth place and just eight shots off first. First was taken by Bryant University’s Jason Thresher, the only player to shoot under par in the second round. He finished 73-69-142 at even par.

“Danny’s played well all spring,” Shore said. “He was the low finisher a of couple times and put together a bunch of great rounds. Danny is a really talented golfer, a really good putter, and has solid overall game.”

Also playing for the Crimson, Greg Shuman finished tied for 13th overall in a solid showing. He shot 77-75 and was the only Harvard player to perform better in the second round than the first.

“In the morning it was pretty easy to score well, [but] in the afternoon the wind really picked up and it became much more difficult,” Shuman said.

Shore and sophomore Peter Singh tied for 17th, each shooting 153 total. Shore shot 75-78 and Singh shot 76-77. John Christensen took a T-25th finish with a respectable 77-79. Sophomore Nick Moseley followed with 79-80 and freshmen Timmy Wu and Louis Amira chipped in 79-81 and 82-84 performances, respectively.

Typically the team takes five players to compete in each tournament, but the Northeast Invitational presents a rare opportunity to play more of the team.

The Invitational finished out the Crimson’s season, which was not without dramatic moments. A first-ever win at the Yale tournament after 33 years certainly was the high point. A fourth-place finish at the long-awaited Ivy Championships left the team somewhat disappointed.

However, Harvard will lose no golfers to graduation, as no seniors played for the team this year.

“Obviously it was a step up from last year and from the fall,” Shuman said. “We won Yale and that’s definitely a positive. At the same time I think we’re kind of disappointed with our finish at Ivies. So we had some ups and downs. I think we just need to be more consistent as a team throughout the year.”

“We didn’t finish where we wanted to at Ivies, and we had some poor weekends like this last tournament,” Shore added. “We can’t be upset with how we played by any means, but we can look to improve.”

—Staff writer Elizabeth A. Joyce can be reached at eajoyce@fas.harvard.edu.