The last time Harvard men’s golf hoisted the Ivy League trophy, Gerald Ford was President of the United States and Microsoft was a start-up. The year was 1975, and, entering the season, the Crimson had been waiting 40 years and counting to snatch the Ancient Eight trophy once more.
This year, Harvard coach Kevin Rhoads changed up the schedule to increase the quality of competition the team would see on a week-to-week basis. But even so, the 2016 squad got out of the gate hot, finishing in the top four at St. John’s, Dartmouth, and Yale, the last of which was a first-place performance.
The men ended the fall portion of their campaign with a trip to UCLA and began the spring with a trek down to Georgia Southern. Though the Crimson only placed 13th in each invite, the lessons learned over both weekends helped propel the team to the success that was to come.
The Crimson came into Ivies coming off back-to-back second place efforts at the Furman Intercollegiate and Princeton Invitational. The team had placed third at Ivies each of the two previous years.
Harvard opened strong at the Ivy Championship, jumping out to a nine-stroke lead after day one. But the Crimson found itself in a tight spot come the last round. Dartmouth had carved into the Crimson edge, once as large as 12, finding themselves only one stroke off the pace with nine holes to play.
“We have a very talented team and a very hard-working team,” Rhoads said. “There were a lot of little things that can change on a yearly basis like weather. Some of it was lessons learned from the last few years, but a lot of it was just those little things going our way this year.”
Ultimately the Crimson was able to stave off the Big Green and hold on to the lead to capture the trophy.
Winning the Ivy League meant that the team would take a trip to the NCAA Regional Tournament in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Once there, however, Harvard found itself in the midst of a very competitive field, with eight of the thirteen in the top-50.
The Crimson came in with the additional disadvantage of not being able to practice outdoors nearly as long as its Southern competitors due to the nature of New England winters. Harvard finished 12th out of the 13-team field.
Newcomers Aurian Capart, Seiya Liu and Paul Lei made their presence felt. Capart was the top Crimson finisher at the Ivy League Championship tournament, shooting an eight-over 224 and earning All Ivy honors. The depth of this year’s team made it highly competitive week-by-week in practice to determine who qualified to tournaments.
“Besides being the most talented team we have had in a long time, every guy on the team is completely committed and desperate to compete each week,” sophomore Greg Royston said. “We all push each other to play better and work harder.”
In the eyes of the players, it is important to continue building on the momentum gained from this season, with the hope of making Ivy League championships the norm rather than the exception.
“We are certainly on the upswing for sure and I feel very confident in the health of this program and where we’re going in the years to come,” Rhoads said. “As we feel strong and competitive in the Northeast region, we’ll vary our competition and sites a bit to make us strong in more different ways.”
–Staff writer Jed Rothstein can be reached at jrothstein@college.harvard.edu.