The Dartmouth golfers in green finished their fall season with a respectable eleventh place finish out of 47 teams at this year's New England Championship, held at the New Seabury Country Club.
Even more importantly for the Big Green, however, they came out on top of Harvard.
Monday's round showed signs of pressure. Coach Bill Johnson and the rest of the young squad sight the team's lack of varsity experience as a possible reason for this performance.
But the team played well on day two after a motivational talk by Johnson after which he said "the signs of anger and stress disappeared, and the signs of guys playing golf appeared. They were having fun, as they should be."
The Big Green were led by co-Captain MacKenzie Hurd '98, who finished in the top six at the New England's last year. Hurd posted a first round 77, followed by a second round 76, complete with a birdie and an eagle on consecutive holes. This performance earned Hurd twelfth place overall, only one shot away from being named all-New England for the second year in a row.
Johnson said Hurd's performance would have been even stronger if not for the "pressure he put on himself to perform."
Fellow co-Captain Steven Sugarman complemented Hurd's efforts. Although his own clubs were stolen earlier this week, Sugarman managed to put together a two day score of 85-76, all with a borrowed set of clubs. After getting used to the clubs on Monday, Sugarman came back on Tuesday to post an impressive five birdies.
Newcomer Jerry Singleton '96 proved that ex-football players can make great golfers. While Singleton referred to his two day score of 80-81 as "all right," Sugarman complemented Singleton on his "good consistent golf." Singleton, who joined the team mid season after quitting football, said he looks forward to the spring, when he hopes to become an even more integral part of this "tight knit group of good guys."
Jay Danzi '97 ran into late round troubles and found himself with a two day showing of 83-82.
Rounding off the top five for the Big Green was freshman rookie Jon Heaton '99. Although he was disappointed with his overall performance of 83-86, Heaton felt the overall experience gained should help him come spring.
The Big Green will now have time to put away the clubs and relax. The team will do some winter work in Leverone Field House before starting its spring season in March.
