Women's Golf Jumps Three Spots in Second Round To Take Princeton Invitational

Bracing torrential downpour and icy winds for most of the weekend, the Harvard women’s golf team edged Princeton out by one stroke to rise from fourth on Saturday to first place on Sunday in the Princeton Invitational.

“I feel really proud because the conditions were definitely tough,” senior Courtney Hooton said. “It was raining the first two days… [and] the course still wasn’t in the best condition. Just the fact that we were able to push through all those conditions and have a great performance really speaks to our level of our ability right now.”

Hooton led the Crimson this weekend at the Springdale Golf Club in Princeton, NJ, a plus-3 score on Sunday boosting her from ninth place to tie for second place. Freshman Michelle Xie finished close behind Hooton, shooting up 24 spots with a plus-1 score in the second round to tie for fifth place.

Four of five Harvard competitors placed in the top-10 by the end of tournament. While the Crimson previously trailed Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers, a plus-10 finish in the second round allowed the team to overtake the top three schools, who scored plus-23, plus-23, and plus-30, respectively, on Sunday.

“We all just stayed focus and everything worked out,” junior Anne Cheng said. “We were really surprised, but we were also really happy and excited about the end result.”

Due to a storm in the area when the team arrived on Friday, it had to forgo its typical pre-tournament practice round, which allows to the competitors to see the course and get a general feel for it. Harvard did not play in the Princeton Invitational last year, and the lack of familiarity proved to be an obstacle on Saturday.

“The first day the conditions were definitely really tough, and for our freshmen it was the first time they’d ever played the course,” Hooton said. “There are definitely a few holes that are very tricky if you don’t know where you’re going, so I think because we weren’t able to play a full practice round, playing the course for the first time [was] definitely a tough thing to do.”

With clearer skies on Sunday and an increased familiarity with the course, however, all Harvard competitors showed vastly improved scores. Hooton went from plus-5 to plus-3 and Xie from plus-6 to plus-1. Cheng, who tied for eighth overall, scored plus-11 on Saturday and plus-2 on Sunday, while Christine Lin, who also tied for eighth, went plus-11 then plus-4. Rounding out the team, Anna Zhou improved from plus-18 to plus-6.

“Our first day of the tournament was just playing it as it is without having much information about the course,” Cheng said. “That could have been part of why we played better in the second round, because we knew what to expect and we knew how to approach each hole.”

Strong individual performances highlighted the second round. Hooton started the day facing a particularly long and treacherous 10th hole but managed to get up and down from the bunker and stay par.

“That’s a really tricky hole, and I usually just consider a bogie a good enough score on that hole, so I started off on a good note and that was fun,” Hooton said.

Hooton’s final plus-8 score fell short only to Georgetown sophomore Jacquelyn Eleey.

Cheng also felt the effect of better conditions on Sunday.