Men’s Golf Shines At 54-Hole Event

As the golf world fixated on the return of a certain player at the Masters, the Harvard men’s golf team watched a different type of Tiger—Princeton’s golfers, who hosted this weekend’s Princeton Invitational.

The 54-hole tournament took place over two days at Springdale Golf Club and featured 15 teams, including seven Ivies. Although the Crimson took a one-stroke lead into the final round, Yale and Harvard tied with a final score of 874, and the tiebreaker went to the Bulldogs on the score of the fifth player.

“We were counting [scores] as everyone came in today, and we [knew] that it was tied,” sophomore Tony Grillo said. “Today they just happened to have the lower fifth score than we did, so they took the tournament.”

The second place finish was an improvement over Harvard’s fortunes last year when it took eighth place in a rain-soaked event. The weather was much improved this time around as the teams enjoyed two sunny days.

“We had great weather for the tournament,” Grillo said. “Yesterday it started out a little bit cold...and then it warmed up in the afternoon. Today it was not as much wind...and much warmer. We were in shorts and short-sleeve shirts all day.”

Springdale Golf Club, a par-71 course that stretches 6,380 yards, presented a change of pace for Harvard.

“It’s really target golf as opposed to a lot of the courses we play which are wide open,” Grillo said. “It’s a shorter course which we don’t always see for college golf tournaments—normally [something] that we can take advantage of, as you saw some low scores this tournament.”

“The pins were a lot tougher today than they were yesterday, but the conditions were a little bit easier,” senior Greg Shuman said.

The Crimson took advantage of the good weather and short course with three players finishing in the top 12. Sophomore Mark Pollak led the way by posting a score of 215 (69-77-69), good enough for fourth place.

“Mark’s a really good player. He’s really starting to get it going as we near the end of the season, which is good for us,” Grillo said.

“Mark played well except for a few holes out there,” Shuman added. “I think all of us sort of feel that way—we played well and just made a few too many mistakes.”

Consistent play earned Shuman and Grillo an eighth and 12th place finish, respectively, with scores of 218 (72-73-73) and 219 (73-73-73).

Junior Louis Amira rounded out Harvard’s top four by shooting a 229 (80-71-78), and captain Danny Mayer scored a 231 (74-80-77) in the decisive fifth spot.

Yale topped Harvard, thanks largely to the performance of junior Tom McCarthy. McCarthy bested the entire field by three strokes en route to finishing the tournament three under par. The Bulldogs fifth player—freshman Carson Weinand—carded a 228 (79-75-74) to edge Mayer in the tiebreaker.

The other Ivies did not fare as well as Yale and the Crimson. Penn finished fourth with 878, Princeton came in ninth scoring an 895, Cornell was two strokes behind the hosts in 10th, Columbia ended up in 13th with 905, and Dartmouth fell to last place after shooting a 925.

The tournament provided a glimpse at the relative hierarchy within the conference.

“Our goal, ultimately, at the end of the season is to win the Ivy League championship,” Shuman said. “I think this week showed more than any that we definitely have a chance and [have] just got to keep improving and getting better each week.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. Walsh can be reached at tjwalsh@fas.harvard.edu.