Crimson Falters In Texas Heat

The Harvard women’s golf team built its season around winning the Ivy League championship for the first time. Once that was accomplished, what to aim for next became less clear.

The Crimson ended its historic season in underwhelming fashion in the NCAA Central Regional Championship at the Texas Golf Club, shooting a disappointing 937 (314-310-313) over the course of the tournament on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

“We didn’t have expectations going into this tournament,” sophomore Claire Sheldon said. “It was an experience for us.”

The top eight of the 21 participating teams advanced to the NCAA championships. While it was always going to be difficult for Harvard to qualify facing some of the top teams in the country—like UCLA and Purdue—the Crimson did not play its best golf on its way to a 19th place finish.

“It was a little bittersweet because you’d like to go out on a really high note, but you can’t end the season on a bad note when you go to regionals,” Sheldon said.

The conditions did not help Harvard.

“It’s tough to go and play in a totally different climate, on a course you’ve never seen before, on different grass than you’ve played,” said senior captain Jessica Hazlett, who shot 242 (83-81-78). “It takes a lot of time to adjust.”

The weather was consistently around 100 degrees in Austin and very humid. On the final day, thunderstorms interrupted play, and four of the five Crimson players were forced to wait 80 minutes to finish their round.

By the time they were able to finish their season, it was 8:19, it was dark, and it was seven hours after they had begun their rounds.

The greens gave Harvard a lot of trouble throughout the tournament. The Bermuda grass and the heat combined to make the greens incredibly firm and fast, something that the team does not see back East.

The Crimson, though, was able to take the unfamiliarity in stride.

“Getting to go to a completely different part of the country and see the other competition,” Hazlett said. “That’s a step above of [the Ivy League], and being able to compete on that level and know that we can compete on that level is pretty remarkable.”

Coach Kevin Rhoads echoed his captain’s feelings, describing the weekend as “uncharted territory” for the Harvard squad.

“It was a chance for us to gage where we are in the greater scheme of things,” Rhoads said. “Looking at our talent level and technique we stack up quite well.”

Junior Emily Balmert again led the way for the Crimson, playing three solid rounds of golf on her way to shooting 79-74-76-229. She has finished first on the team in every spring tournament this season.

Finishing six strokes behind her were Sheldon (79-76-80-235) and junior Ali Bode (77-79-79-235).

Hazlett and sophomore Sarah Harvey also contributed to the effort, shooting 79-87-81-247.

Coming off the dominating performance in the Ivy championships, Harvard was full of confidence. But the demanding academic schedule at Harvard made it difficult to find practice time in between the two tournaments .

Additionally, most of the other competing teams are able to play much longer spring seasons, adding yet another disadvantage that the Crimson faced coming into the weekend.

“With finishing up classes and all the work at this time of year we didn’t get in all the reps we needed in practice and I think that was reflected to a certain extent in our scores,” Hazlett said. “There was definitely a little bit of disappointment with how we played. But really, any time you get the chance to play at the regional level like this you can’t be too disappointed.”

Simply being a part of the NCAA setup was a new experience for the Harvard players, highlighting just how special the season was for the Ivy League Champion Crimson.

“It’s the best season [Harvard women’s golf] has ever had. Period,” Hazlett said.

—Staff writer Jay M. Cohen can be reached at jaycohen@fas.harvard.edu.