Men's Golf Shows Depth in Macdonald Cup Win

Third time was truly the charm for the Harvard men’s golf team this season. In its third tournament of the fall, the Crimson came away with a first-place finish and brought the Macdonald Cup home to Cambridge this weekend.

Thirteen squads made the trek to the Yale Golf Course in New Haven, Conn., to participate in the event, which was hosted by the Bulldogs. Joining Harvard and Yale were fellow Ancient Eight teams Dartmouth, Princeton, Cornell, Brown, and Penn.

“It was really good for us to be able to play well against the rest of the Ivy League,” Harvard coach Kevin Rhoads said. “We’ve been improving week-by-week, and this week we were finally able to go out there and put it all together. We’re in a good position moving forward.”

The course played at par 70, with only two par-5 holes of the 18. The invite featured an abbreviated schedule of play, with just two rounds of play.

Harvard jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, shooting a round 1 score of 285. This was good enough to position the team four strokes ahead of Dartmouth after Saturday's play.

The Crimson played even better in round 2, shooting a 283 to extend its lead to 12 shots over runner-up Minnesota. Overall, Harvard finished just eight strokes over par as a team.

“Everyone on the team had a great attitude this weekend throughout the tournament,” sophomore Hale Furey said. “We didn’t let the rain and wind deter us at all throughout the day, and I think that shows how mentally tough we are. I think the weather really fit our team’s personality.”

On the individual side, Crimson players dominated the leaderboard, laying claim to four of the top five players. Junior Robert Deng finished the day in second place, one shot behind Minnesota’s Jon DuToit. Deng’s first-round 73 and second-round 67 put him at an even-par 140 for the tournament. His score of 67 was tied with DuToit for the lowest single-round score of the event.

“I think this week we finally saw all the guys get fully settled in,” Rhoads said. “Sometimes it’s hard for players to adjust to the school year and balance their time coming back in from the summer. This week we saw a lot of the team playing at the top of its game and that’s something I hope we can continue moving forward.”

Finishing right behind Deng was a trio of teammates. Junior Daniel De La Garza fired a 142, good enough for third place. Junior Kendrick Vinar and freshman Aurian Capart finished just one stroke behind De La Garza, tying for fourth place. Rounding out the board for Harvard was Furey, who finished in a tie for sixth place.

Freshman Seiya Liu came out of the gates hot, shooting a first-round 69 that led all participants. He finished the day tied for 19th overall.

“The problem we have is the best possible problem,” Rhoads said. “We have a whole team of players who could be among the best in the league having to compete every week to make the team, [and] it really speaks to the depth of this year’s team.”

Captain Rohan Ramnath was again out of action this weekend due to injury. The team hopes he will back and healthy for the fourth and final tournament of the fall half of the season at UCLA in November.

“This is the most competitive the team has ever been before,” Furey said. “It’s really hard to make the team each and every week because of the number of high-quality players we have, so I think we have a chance to be really successful moving forward and building momentum.”

—Staff writer Jed Rothstein can be reached at jrothstein@college.harvard.edu