Men's Golf Ties for Third at Windy Tourney

With the Ivy League Championships looming next weekend, the Harvard men’s golf team traveled to Owings Mills, Md., to participate in the Caves Valley Invitational.

High winds brought high scores, especially on Saturday, as Brown, Cornell, George Washington, Penn, Princeton, Yale, and the Crimson battled the elements.

Despite wild scores, Harvard battled its way into a third-place tie, shooting a 622 over the course of the tournament. Penn took the title by tallying 612 strokes, Princeton came in second at 617, and George Washington matched the Crimson’s score for third.

“None of us really had it today,” sophomore Tony Grillo said. “We all felt we didn’t play well this week, and I think it’s something to look forward to next week.”

The wind presented the largest challenge for the players. On the first day when conditions were harshest, only 13 players carded less than an 80.

“I’d say it was probably gusting up near 30 miles per hour and stayed right around 20 to 25, so we didn’t play great,” Grillo said.

“We pride ourselves on struggling through the tough conditions,” sophomore Mark Pollak said. “We all felt we didn’t accomplish that this weekend.”

“Yes, it’s easy to say the weather was horrible,” he added, “but to perform when the weather is really horrible is a sign that you’re doing well, and the fact that we didn’t do that this weekend is discouraging.”

The tournament was hosted by a red-hot Bulldog squad that had won its last two matches, including last week’s Princeton Invitational, where it edged Harvard on a tiebreaker. This time around, Yale dropped to fifth place where, along with the Big Red, it scored a 625.

In last week’s Princeton Invitational, senior Greg Shuman and Pollak set the pace for the Crimson, by shooting a 215 and 218, respectively. But this week, the duo could not replicate its success.

“This tournament, we did something that I don’t believe we’ve done all season,” Grillo said. “We were forced to drop one score from our top two players in each round, which, given how we’ve been [performing] all season, is the opposite of how we’ve been playing,”

Grillo led Harvard in the tournament. The sophomore shot a 79 on Saturday and a 76 on Sunday—good enough for a 155 and ninth place overall in the tournament.

“I felt like I played pretty good golf, but I got caught off guard each day,” Grillo said. “I had a high number in the middle of [each] round...It will definitely help me going into next week, help me manage my game a little better.”

The Caves Valley Golf Club, built in 1991, is a par-71 course that stretches 6,942 yards. Designed by famed golf course architect Tom Fazio, Caves Valley’s biggest challenge was the speed of its greens.

“They were the fastest I’ve played in college without a doubt,” Pollak said. “It’s hard to control the ball when you’re on the green, and that’s usually where you make up your strokes.”

Last year, Harvard dominated the tournament. Pollak came in fourth overall and Shuman finished just behind him in sixth as the Crimson cruised and won by 13 strokes.

Although Harvard could not match last year’s result, its finish constitutes the Crimson’s third-straight top-three performance. Going into the final event of the season—this weekend’s Ivy League Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.—Harvard’s consistency bodes well.

“If these last tournaments are evidence of anything, it’s that the championship is up there for anyone to grab,” Pollak said. “We’ve had teams go from last to first and vice versa, so it’s really all going to come down to the three games next week.”

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