Women's Golf Finishes 11th at Ole Miss

In its first tournament of the spring season, the Harvard women’s golf team finished tied for 11th out of 18 teams this weekend at the Rebel Intercollegiate tournament at the Ole Miss Golf Course in Oxford, Miss.

The Crimson finished 50 over par after three rounds, as five Harvard golfers combined for 914 strokes over 270 holes of the par-72 course.

Freshman Courtney Hooton led the Crimson with a 10-over performance to finish in an eight-way tie for 38th place out of 96 individual entries. Junior captain Bonnie Hu, who is also a Crimson business editor, finished a stroke behind to tie for 46th.

“I was very pleased with how we did as a team,” Hu said. “I think that we may have been a little disappointed with some scores here and there, but as a whole, considering we just started up a couple weeks ago, we did very well in this tournament. It’s going in the right direction.”

Harvard turned in a consistent three days of golf, tallying 299 strokes on Friday, 307 on Saturday and 308 on Sunday. Freshman Christine Lin finished a stroke behind Hu to tie for 50th at 12-over. Sophomore Brenna Nelsen, who is also a Crimson sports editor, tied for 68th at 17-over. Sophomore Tiffany Lim shot 30-over to tie for 91st.

“I think we worked hard and really rallied,” Hooton said. “It’s a tough course, so to play how we did, I’m really proud of the team.”

No. 49 Coastal Carolina was the only team to finish under par to take the team title. The Chanticleers led after each day of competition, shooting one-under after 863 strokes to hold off No. 24 Baylor (+8, 872 strokes) and No. 20 Tulane (+14, 878 strokes).

Coastal Carolina’s Jessica Alexander topped the individual leaderboard with 208 strokes and an one-under over the three days. The senior edged out Baylor sophomore Hayley Davis by a stroke with a -1 performance on Sunday.

“It’s really nice being able to come here in warm weather and play against teams that are very competitive,” Hu said. “Obviously, they’ve played more time in better weather than us in practice. But it’s nice seeing how we stack up against them.”

Hooton opened with a two-over performance on Friday before shooting four-over on each of the final two days.

“I was really up and down and definitely having to battle for pars. But I’m happy with how I played overall.”

Hu tied Hooton for the best Crimson round of the weekend, turning in two-over performances on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Hu shot three-over on Friday and six-over on Sunday.

“I played well the first two days and today [I] struggled a little bit,” Hu said. “But overall, I know what I need to work on, and overall I’m pretty pleased with the different parts of my game.”

This year was Harvard’s second straight appearance at the Ole Miss Golf Course’s Rebel Intercollegiate. The Crimson finished 10th out of 15 teams in 2012.

“I really like this course,” Hu said. “I think the course is tough, but it’s also fair. If you’re playing well, and you’re hitting good shots, you’ll get good results. And if you’re kind of struggling a little, you get penalized but it’s not ridiculous.”

After a long winter, Harvard competed in match-play in Phoenix, Ariz. during spring break after a five-month hiatus from competition. As spring slowly returns to New England, the Crimson continues to adjust to playing outside.

“I think that it’s really helpful that during our spring break we did a lot of training. It’s not really a big amount of time [to adjust],” Horton said. “We just have to dive in and get back into it, so I think that starting out with these tournaments right away is really helpful for just getting us back into that competitive mode.”

Harvard will not need to travel far for its next competition. The Crimson will compete at the Brown Invitational next weekend, April 14-15. The tournament will be Harvard’s last before Ivy League Championships at Trump National Golf and Country Club in Bedminster, N.J., April 26-28.

“I’m really excited about the Brown tournament because I think we are doing well and trending in the right direction. People have a better idea of which areas of their game will need work,” Hu said. “I think we will go into Brown better prepared.”

—Staff writer Michael D. Ledecky can be reached at mledecky@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @mdledecky.