Sara Vogler '96 closed out her competitive collegiate golf career in style last Sunday with a win at the Northeast Women's Intercollegiate Championship.
With the win Vogler became the third Dartmouth golfer in the 15 year history of the event to take top honors. Sue Johnson Bower '85 won in 1982, 1984 and 1985 and, more recently, Sarah Davis '93 was a medalist in 1993.
Vogler shot (82-80) 162 to top runner-up Laura Gilmore (83-80 - 163) and third place finisher Mary Moan (82-82 - 164), both of Princeton.
"It is not like I had the best round of my life but it was good enough to win," Vogler said. "Golf is a funny sport. I never know how I am going to play when I show up. Even when you're not playing well if you can hold it together that is how you win."
The opening round of the competition was played at the Hickory Ridge Country Club in Amherst, Mass., and the second round was at the Orchards Country Club, owned by Mount Holyoke. On both courses the women played under the best weather conditions they have had all year.
Vogler and teammates Meredith Johnson '98, Jessica Hughes '97, Samantha Sommers '99 and Heidi Corderman '96 brought back their best finish of the year, fourth place. Rutgers took top team honors (337-342 -- 679), followed by Yale and Princeton. The Big Green (355-354 -- 709) nudged out the University of Hartford (356-354 -- 710) by one stroke for their fourth place finish.
Hughes said that in the other tournaments the team has played in this year, it was in fourth place after the first round but were "edged out" by Hartford after the second round and ended up fifth. The team agreed that it felt good to reverse roles this time around.
"We all had pretty good course management. Everyone really played for the team and it was really nice," Sommers said.
Coach Izzy Johnson was very pleased with both the performance and finish of her team. She complemented Vogler's work ethic, pointing out that she has worked hard all spring to be ready when it was her time for the win.
"She is such a good example," Hughes said of her teammate. "I've never heard her say before we went into a tournament that she wanted to win. She knew this was her last chance and she did it."
Vogler was just as complimentary of her teammates and coach.
"I was well aware that this was my last chance to win a tournament and it helped because my teammates were definitely supportive of me," she said. The win "also says a lot about Izzy because I think I've improved a lot since my freshman year. I know so much more about golf then when I started, mentally."
The Northeast Championship was the last competitive outing for the team. Because there are only four Ivy League schools that field women's golf teams, Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale and Harvard, there is not an Ivy Championship meet. The Northeasterns are currently as close as the team gets to a league championship.
