Having a week off from competition seems to have been a very good thing for the women's golf team, as the Big Green came back from the break and posted some sizzling numbers at the Mount Holyoke Invitational this past Friday and Saturday.
The Big Green took third place on the course of Mount Holyoke, shooting 331 on both days for a total of 662. As expected, Rutgers took top honors [323-313--636], and was followed by Hartford [329-325--654]. Yale and Harvard both finished behind Dartmouth, as did Boston University, the University of New Hampshire, Amherst, and host Mount Holyoke.
According to Coach Izzy Johnson, The Orchard, Mt. Holyoke's course, has an interesting history, as it was built in the 1930s by the father of a female student at the college specifically for the women's golf team. Today it is a par 72, with an assigned slope rating of 133. Slope is a new calculation being used to rate the difficulty of various courses. Average slope rating is 113.
That fact makes the individual accomplishments of the Big Green stand out even more. Six of the women achieved personal bests this weekend. Sara Vogler '96 [82-79] tied for fifth place with a score of 161. Saturday was the second time in her college career that she shot under 80.
Samantha Sommers '99 [81-80] tied Vogler for fifth place. Her 80 on Saturday was the best competitive round she has shot in what looks like it will be a fine career here at Dartmouth.
The honor roll continues with Meredith Johnson '98 who shot 86 and 82 for a two day total of 168. The 82 was her low competitive round at Dartmouth. Jessica Hughes [82-91] shot a 173, and Friday's 82 was also her lowest competitive round in her college career. Senior co-Captain Jami Papa [88-90] rounded out the team and shot a 178. Her Friday score was the first time she broke 90 in college.
Playing as individuals as a somewhat of a primer for the upcoming ECACs, co-Captain Heidi Corderman '96 and Joanna Whitley '97 also finished strong. Corderman [86-84] shot 170, with her Saturday score of 84 also being her low competitive round of her career. Whitley [89-92] shot a respectable 181.
Coach Johnson was extremely pleased with the competitiveness of her team in an overall satisfying weekend for the linksters.
"It is just incredible," Johnson said. "We had six top performances. You don't go from shooting 90 to 70 in golf overnight, it goes slowly."
"The whole team is working on [a mental attitude]," she added. "They are managing the course better and learning when and how to focus. You can't focus for four hours constantly."
Evidently, a mental adjustment was all the team needed to perform well and enjoy the competition at the same time.
"I thought it was really fun," Meredith Johnson said. "For the first time we all played well in a tournament. As the season has gone on our team has progressed a lot. We're playing better than we have before. Maybe this [coming] weekend we can set some new goals."
The increased confidence should be reflected in the team's scores at the ECACs.
Saturday was the highlight of the weekend for the Big Green when all seven women shot in the 80s. To have four scores below 90 in the Northeast is quite an accomplishment, not to mention seven.
"We were all really pulling for each other this weekend," Hughes said. "We actually got it in our heads that we could place. I feel like we are a different level and can do it all the time."
Papa echoed the sentiments of her teammates and credited the time off as a factor in the team's performance.
"The team was definitely more spirited and confident this week," she said. "I think having the time off allowed us to get in a few more 18 hole practice rounds which allowed us to better determine the areas that we should focus on in practice. I think this really showed in everyone's short games."
The women have one more week of practice to do any fine tuning they may need in order to continue their fine play at the ECAC's in Princeton next weekend, the culmination of the fall season.
