Men's Golf Beats Ivy Competition for Second Place at Princeton Invitational

After finishing 6th out of 21 teams at the Furman Invitational last week with a score of two under par, the Harvard nen’s Golf team ended this weekend in second place at the Princeton Invitational, beating out all Ivy League competition and only falling behind a strong Seton Hall squad.

Below Harvard’s score of six on the Ivy totem pole, Princeton who finished third on its home turf. Harvard’s New Haven rival Yale was fifth and the two New York institutions, Cornell and Columbia ended the weekend of play 8th and 9th respectively with scores of 26 and 29. University of Pennsylvania and Brown finished towards the bottom of the 14 teams would ranked 11th and 13th respectively.

The narrative for the Princeton Invitational was set. With more than an inch of rain covering the course on Thursday, the greens were a tough prospect, so predictably, the scores from the Friday morning were lower than usual. In addition, a cold stretch moved in with strong winds. The teams would have to battle these adverse conditions.

“It was maybe a tougher day to play golf than usual, but I think we handled the conditions well, though the scores were worse for each team across the board on that Friday morning,” sophomore Aurian Capart said. “We powered through it, but given the weather, we did not know what to expect.”

And power through it they did. For a team that has only been playing outdoors for three weeks since its spring break golf trip to Florida, it was a strong performance over the two days. Considering the strength of the competition within the team, however, these performances come as a result of teammates constantly pushing each other to play at the highest level.

“The support within the team, whether we have a good day or a bad one has been a huge part of our progress in the fall season and in this spring season,” Capart said.

Last week’s intra-team scrimmage would dictate the travelers for the Princeton tournament. The top five golfers from the scrimmage were: senior and captain Daniel de la Garza, seniors Robert Deng and top performer from last weeks Furman Invitational Kendrick Vinar. The lone freshman was Ryan Rhee and the sole sophomore Aurian Capart. These would be the five Harvard representatives at the Princeton Invitational.

The Belgium native Capart led the team in scoring in New Jersey, shooting a 209 after three rounds which individually put him at 2nd out of 75 golfers, falling just behind Seton Hall’s Lloyd Jefferson Go who shot five shots better.

The Crimson’s Vinar ended the weekend with a score of 217. De la Garza finished third for the Harvard team. After a competition wide best first round score of 69, he cooled off, hitting a 75 in the second and third rounds. For Rhee it was the opposite. After a rocky start in the first round, he recovered with the weather, shooting a 75 in the second round and before finishing strong with a 69 in the third. Rounding up the Crimson team was Deng who, like Rhee recovered, shooting 80-73-69.

On the progress from the weekend, the team is upbeat about the performance. All tournaments and preparation go to hit top form for the Ivy League tournament in 10 days, and the play from the weekend is a good sign for the defending Ivy Champions.

“We have been working extremely hard and it is great to see that our games are progressing nicely. We had some really solid rounds this weekend, despite the challenging weather conditions,” de la Garza said. “I was particularly happy with the way all the team members handled themselves out there. We did a great job focusing in our process and the controllable factors.”

This was the team’s last match play before Ivies on Friday April 21st and with continued progress, the Crimson might just reclaim the Ivy League title.

—Staff writer Max McEvoy can be reached at max.mcevoy@thecrimson.com