Three-Peat Not in The Cards for Golf

Three turned out to be quite an unlucky number for the Harvard women’s golf team.

Faced with the chance to nab its third-consecutive Ivy League team championship, the Crimson fell short of its lofty goal this weekend, finishing in third place at the esteemed Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. as Penn captured its first-ever league title yesterday by 22 strokes.

“It was our only poorly-performing week of the season so far,” Harvard coach Kevin Rhoads said. “We didn’t play great all three days. Usually when this happens with us, one person will struggle on a given day, but the other four will play pretty darn well. That just didn’t happen this week, unfortunately.”

Taking on Baltusrol’s par-72, 6,101-yard Upper Course, the Quakers excelled over the three-day competition, firing the lowest team score of each round. After an opening-round 314 put the squad five strokes ahead of the second-place Crimson, Penn improved by six shots Saturday, extending its advantage over Harvard to nine strokes after two rounds.

A final-round total of 307—the best team score of any round in the tournament—helped the Quakers pull away with the crown with a three-round total of 929—65 over par.

Twelve strokes behind Harvard heading into the last day, Yale used the efforts of junior Alyssa Roland (78-76-73)—the top individual scorer of the competition—to leapfrog into second place overall, three strokes ahead of the Crimson’s team score of 954. The Bulldogs finished second in the Ivy championship last year as well.

“Two teams played very well [Sunday], and we were not one of them,” Rhoads said.

But the story of the weekend was Penn’s historical finish at the 54-hole event. The Quaker squad featured three top-10 individual finishers—including freshman Isabel Han, individual runner-up to Roland by one stroke—and no golfer outside of the top 13.

Though Penn had finished fifth at Ivies for three-straight seasons, the squad’s breakthrough came as no real surprise, as the Quakers placed second to Harvard at the Roar-EE Invitational last weekend.

“Penn played particularly well this week, and I give them a lot of credit,” Rhoads said. “But certainly I believe that if we had played a normal week for us—or a good week for us—that we certainly would have either won or been right next to Penn, despite how well they played this week.”

Showing no signs of rust after not competing a week ago, freshman Katie Sylvan led the way for the Crimson, firing a three-day five-over-par total of 231 to tie for fourth.

“Katie played very well, but the rest of the team struggled,” Rhoads said.

After dominating the course her first day with an even-par 72—collecting five birdies to establish the tournament-low for all players in any round—the standout rookie fell back to earth in her next two attempts, ending up with 10-over-par and five-over-par tallies, respectively.

Sophomore teammate Christine Cho was just four strokes behind at 235. Cho’s best effort was a second-round 76, but her final-day round of 80 dropped her from a tie for fifth place into a final finish of eighth. The ever-steady sophomore and reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year had two birdies in each of her three rounds.

Harvard’s third-best finisher was captain Claire Sheldon, who placed 10th at 241. Sheldon’s top round also came on Saturday, when she had three birdies on the way to a three-over-par 75. But an opening-day 84 and a final-day 82 proved to be bogey-laden difference-makers.

The veteran shared her coach’s opinion that the squad simply had an off weekend.

“It’s definitely important not to let this take away from the success that we’ve had,” Sheldon said. “I still think we’re the best team in the league, even if this weekend that wasn’t the case.”

“We did everything we could to prepare for this weekend,” she added. “That’s the game, I guess…We got outplayed this weekend, and that happens.”

Junior Mia Kabasakalis turned in a 248 (85-78-85), good for a tie for 17th place, and senior Sarah Harvey (84-83-87) ended up 24th out of the 35-player field.

The league title gives Penn an automatic bid to an NCAA regional tournament. The Crimson has an outside chance at receiving an at-large bid to the postseason, but “the percentage is small, unfortunately,” Rhoads said.

Harvard’s third-place finish likely represents a disappointing conclusion to what Rhoads called “the best season we’ve ever had, up to this point.”

—Staff writer Dennis J. Zheng can be reached at dzheng12@college.harvard.edu.