Harvard Defeats in Shortened Play

Three tournaments. Three victories.

The Harvard women’s golf team continued its perfect start to the season by winning the Yale Fall Intercollegiate in New Haven, Conn., this weekend.

The Crimson shot 301 yesterday, as the tournament was adjusted to one-round following heavy rain on Saturday.

On the first day of play, Harvard got off to an early lead in the poor conditions. The Crimson seemed to be cruising to yet another tournament win, until the weather added some unfriendly complications.

With the Harvard golfers on the back nine, the course was deemed unplayable due to puddles of standing water on the greens. The round was halted, and the Crimson players went to sleep Saturday night unsure of what was to come Sunday.

When the players came to the tee the following morning, they were informed that the first round scores had been wiped out and the tournament had been adjusted to a single round.

“It’s natural to feel like you’ve had something taken away from you,” Harvard coach Kevin Rhoads said regarding the situation yesterday. “And something like that can really distract you. It was a real mental test for us [yesterday] to ignore what was thrown out [Saturday].”

Operating under the assumption that the scores would indeed not count, Rhoads attempted to rally his squad at dinner Saturday. Sophomore Mia Kabasakalis, who finished yesterday with a round of 76, recalled her coach’s motivating pep talk.

“He said that they are going to make the decision they are going to make, and if Tiger [Woods] or Annika [Sorenstam] played in a tournament and had this happen, they would not have a victim’s attitude, but would be determined to go play golf and crush the rest of the field.”

Listening to their coach, and perhaps keeping Tiger and Annika in mind, Harvard did just that.

The Crimson golfers picked up where they had left off the day before—this time in the sun rather than the rain—and defeated the rest of the field on their way to the team’s third straight tournament victory. Harvard’s 301 placed them four strokes ahead of the University of Texas at San Antonio in second place, and 10 strokes better than Yale, its closest Ivy League competitor.

Junior Claire Sheldon led the way for the Crimson with a 73. Her round included four birdies. She also hit nearly every green in regulation on her way to a fourth-place finish.

Freshman Christine Cho (75) put in another solid performance to continue her fast start to her collegiate career. Kabasakalis and senior Emily Balmert (77) rounded off the scoring for Harvard in a very strong day of play.

“I think Yale is the best course we play every year, but it’s about the hardest course we play each year,” Rhoads said. “301 is awfully good for Yale, especially in the context of what happened Saturday.”

In the victory, the Crimson continued its trend of making history. Yesterday marked the first time that Harvard had ever won at Yale.

In the tournament, the Crimson comfortably beat Ivy rivals Yale, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth, and Penn.

“It showed not only that our physical games surpassed the rest of the field, but also that our mental game was stronger,” Kabasakalis said.

Harvard has dominated the start of the season. Having played three weekends in a row, the Crimson now gets a few weeks to rest before its final tournament of the fall, the Lehigh Invitational on Oct. 25-26.

“It’s been really hectic,” Cho said. “To start school and then have to leave campus each weekend to play in a tournament has been very busy.”

When asked about what the team would focus on in the few weeks before its next tournament, Rhoads echoed Cho’s feelings. The goal?

“To get a bit of a break,” he said.

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