Female Individual Performance of the Year: Christine Lin at Ivy Championships

Christine Lin knew that she had the chance to do something special. But as the freshman teed up for the 18th hole of the final round of the Ivy League Championship, she had no idea just how clutch her performance would be.

After trailing leader Kelly Shon by two strokes through 36 holes at Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster, N.J., Lin had tracked down the Princeton junior in the third round as the Crimson and Tigers battled for the team title. Going into the last hole, Lin and Shon knew they were tied for the individual lead, but neither player was exactly sure where her school stood relative to the other in the team competition.

“I actually felt a little bit different,” Lin said of her approach to the 18th. “Physically, I could feel that I was really, really nervous, and I knew it was really important for the team.”

Lin proceeded to match Shon stroke-for-stroke to force a playoff for the individual title. The freshman finished the round with a tournament-best one-under-par 71 and an overall score of two-over-par after sinking a two-foot putt.

The big news, though, would come minutes later after Lin turned in her final scorecard: the Harvard women’s golf team had clinched the team title by a single stroke. The freshman’s breakout performance had allowed the Crimson to edge Princeton by the slimmest of margins, 909-910. Following the tournament, Lin was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year.

“It was just crazy, just one shot out of three days,” Lin said. “If we stand in Princeton’s shoes, they’re probably thinking ‘one putt, that could have made a difference for us.’ You just think of the possibilities of if this hadn’t gone this way, then we wouldn’t have won.”

Lin would end up losing the playoff, but she contributed her best round of golf of the season when her team needed it the most.

“It was so fun and so satisfying to see [Lin] play how she knows that she can play—to be individually at the very top and also help our team come out on top,” Harvard coach Kevin Rhoads said.

Lin always had the potential to vie for an Ivy title. In high school, the Austin, Texas, resident consistently placed among the top three golfers in her state’s class. But in the season’s first five tournaments, the freshman had not posted a single team-leading final score. She entered the Ivy League Championships in late April with full confidence but few expectations.

“I knew my game was in a good position a few weeks heading into it,” Lin said. “To be honest, I wasn’t thinking that much in terms of score. I talked to my coach, and I realized that putting expectations on this tournament would kind of inhibit me from performing my best.”

At the tournament, Rhoads focused on Lin’s mental game. He turned to a few notes that he had Lin write for him in the summer, and he asked Lin to review the notes before each round.

“[Rhoads] realized that my mental game has prevented me from reaching my potential, and he had me read something that I wrote about myself and [in] what conditions I perform my best,” Lin said. “[The notes] reminded me that I could be really good even if I’m not doing my best.”

Rhoads saw an immediate change in the way Lin approached her game.

“The desire to really be as perfect as [she could] be and really have everything working correctly was almost sort of working against her,” Rhoads added. “[The notes] really opened her up and let her do as well as she could possibly do.”

With a renewed perspective, Lin shot one-over in the first round of the championship to tie for second behind Penn sophomore Amanda Chin. The next day, Lin was among the most consistent of the first-round leaders, shooting two-over in the second round to maintain her second-place position.

“I just believed in doing what I was working on,” Lin said. “I really just enjoyed myself out there and enjoyed the competition and just being with the team.”

With four birdies in the final round, the freshman effectively drove, chipped, and putted Harvard across the country. The win qualified the Crimson to compete at the NCAA West Regionals in Stanford, Calif.

Lin hopes to build on her success next year. She will continue to have plenty of competition on her own team as Harvard returns all five players from its championship roster.

“I definitely have a lot of things to work on,” Lin said. “From now on, the goal is to have a really good attitude, which will help me play even better in future rounds. I want to be one of the top contributors on the team.”

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