Most Dartmouth students would have traded many things to extend their Homecoming weekend another day or two. The women's golf team, however, was more than ready to return to a normal schedule after a long and frustrating weekend at the ECAC Championship.
The Big Green finished a respectable eighth out of 15 teams at the Springdale Golf Course in Princeton, New Jersey. Host Princeton won the team title with a two-day combined score of [330-330] 660. Penn State followed the Tigers with a score of [335-332] 667. Rutgers [670], James Madison [684] and Longwood College filled the remainder of the top spots.
Dartmouth's two day score was a [367-350] 717, good for eighth place. The ninth place finisher, William and Mary, was 30 strokes behind, and Harvard followed them.
The long weekend for the team started with a Thursday departure, and ended with a early morning return to campus on Monday. Play was delayed until Saturday afternoon while the rain poured down, and when the teams began play after the rain lessened, they were several hours late and could not finish the first round before darkness fell.
As a result, they teed-off at 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning to finish six holes before starting the second round immediately after the first ended. When the golfers finally finished, they had been golfing for about eight hours straight.
Princeton's Sarah Moan won the individual title with a two day score of 155. Dartmouth's Sara Vogler '96 [90-75] led the Big Green with her combined score of 165, good for a tie for ninth place. Samantha Sommers '99 turned in another strong performance [85-86] with a 171. Following Sommers were Meredith Johnson '98 [189], co-Captain Heidi Corderman '96 [192] and Jessica Hughes '97 [203].
Vogler's 75 on Sunday afternoon was the best round of the tournament, and Coach Izzy Johnson was extremely pleased with her finish on Sunday, especially under the poor conditions.
"She's a very fast player," Johnson said. "Three hours is a comfortable pace for her, and she played a five hour and 45 minute round. [While she was golfing] I thought she was so angry about the pace that I didn't want to go near her. Little did I know she was shooting the lights out. I was floored when she finished that round."
Johnson was rightfully impressed. In addition to 75 being the low score at the tournament, it was Vogler's personal best by four strokes and was three over the par of 72. She also shot four birdies en route to her fine finish.
Vogler was not impressed with her performance on Saturday, and was a bit critical about Sunday as well.
"I couldn't putt at all in the morning," she said.
She also attributed part of the team's performance to the poor condition of the course due to rain and maintenance. According to members of the team, the only greens that were mowed on Sunday morning were the ones that Princeton played, the back side. Evidently, the grounds crew did not have time to get to any of the other ones. They also neglected to change the pins in the holes, worsening the conditions.
"The field was wet and lumpy, which doesn't make well for rolling a very small ball into a very small hole," Johnson said.
Vogler was less forgiving. "It was a joke," she said. "They were evil."
"I think we all hoped to do a little better," Sommers said. "I don't think we all played as well as we would have liked. [The rain] was a huge factor. It just made it a really long day. I was very tired."
Hughes agreed, saying, "The rain really hurt the field. I know it definitely affected my game. By the time we went out, we had waited for hours and just weren't up to play. The course was in awful condition ... and just really tough to play on. It was really too bad because this was a big tournament for us."
Poor conditions aside, the women finished their fall season on a high note, with overall improved scores.
