At Big 5, Harvard Shares Piece of Sixth

In a Big 5 Invitational that saw a lot of teams fluctuate on the leaderboard from Round 1 to Round 2, the Harvard men’s golf team’s consistency earned it an outright sixth-place (301-300-601) in the 17-team tournament—up from last year’s ninth-place finish. But even that isn’t enough for some on the team.

“All in all, we were a a little disappointed with how we finished, especially in comparison to the other Ivy teams,” sophomore Mark Pollak said. “Losing to Yale two weeks in a row has been pretty upsetting.”

Hot off its first-place finish at its home-hosted MacDonald Cup, the Bulldogs took a share of second place this weekend, shooting consecutive 297s over the two-day tournament held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course.

But the big surprise on the weekend was Penn. After shooting an uninspiring 309 in the first round, the Quakers shot a +7 (291) to jump from tied at 14th in the first round to tied at fourth in the second.

That sudden turnaround can largely be attributed to the drastic improvement the Quakers’ Colin St. Maxens experienced. After shooting an 82 in the first round on the par-71 course, St. Maxens answered with a 65 on Day 2.

“That basically made up for [Penn’s] poor play in the first round,” senior Greg Shuman said. “When you have someone do that, your team is going to have a very very good tournament.’

For the Crimson’s part, the weekend offered mixed results.

Pollak led the team with his +5 (74-73), which earned him a share of seventh.

“I really liked the course,” Pollak said. “It suits my game real well. I played well there last year.”

Shuman and sophomore Tony Grillo both finished within the top 25. Shuman shot a 77 in Round 1 and 73 in Round 2, while Grillo shot a 74 and a 76—both finishing in a six-way tie at 21st.

Captain Danny Mayer and classmate Nick Moseley rounded out the Crimson competition. Moseley finished with a share of 59th at +15 (79-78), while Mayer finished the course at +20 (76-86) for a piece of 73rd.

“[Moseley] found himself in a few really tough positions and bunkers,” Pollak said. “It’s just the luck of the game where you’ll find youself in a position where you can’t advance yourself. You just have to hope to minimize the damahge as best as possible.”

According to Shuman, the conditions this weekend had a significant role in the number of strokes needed to get through the two rounds.

“The golf course played a lot more difficult than it usually is,” Shuman said. “The prevailing wind blew in the opposite direction that it was supposed to.”

As a result of the change in wind, Shuman said players had to drive with the wind on the shorter holes, while they had to drive into the wind on the longer holes.

Pollak echoed his teammates sentiments about the weather and felt it had a part to play in Penn’s reversal.

“The weather the first day was pretty challenging—rain in the morning, windy in the aftrernoon,” Pollak said. “The second day was windy the entire day. Penn’s ability to deal with the wind and rain had a lot to do with their performance.”

Harvard’s fall season reaches its culmination next weekend with the Ivy Match Play at the Bay Club in Mattapoisett, Mass. The Crimson is used to competing in stroke-play all season, so it will use this week to figure out which matches will prove most fruitful.

“This week it’s going to be all matches, one-on-one,” Pollak said. “See who can best handle the different approach.”

—Staff writer Dixon McPhillips can be reached at fmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.