Heading into the 36th and final hole of the weekend, Chris Welty '00 knew he was playing well. What he didn't know was quite how well. Despite three-putting the 18th hole for the second straight day, Welty was able to walk into the clubhouse and find out that he had won the Dartmouth Invitational by one stroke. Welty's peformance helped lift Dartmouth to a tie for fifth-place overall.
"It was a feeling of both relief and celebration," Welty said. "Going into 18, I knew there was a chance I could three-putt the hole because I had three-putted on Saturday. I was just hoping not to four-putt and finish at any score over 66."
In the end, Welty finished the round with a three-under par 66, which was good enough for a three-under par two day total of 135. Unfortunately for Welty, he had no idea what score would be necessary to hold off Army's Ryan Hazelton, who finished the tournament one stroke back with a 136.
"I started playing earlier in the day so I had no idea what anybody else was shooting," Welty said. "But that was good because I could just go out there and concentrate on my score."
Welty's strong performance followed what he considered to be a disappointing round on Saturday.
"I have five birdies and an eagle and only managed to finish at par," he said. "But the course conditions were perfect on Sunday because the rain had really softened the course."
The junior took advantage of the course to birdie the first three holes and five of his first seven holes. That cushion would ultimately provide the difference.
"Anything is possible in golf, and I could have just as easily shot an 80 or a 58 on Sunday depending on the way the ball bounced. I had never gone that deep into a tournament with a chance to win and wasn't sure how I would deal with the pressure. But fortunately I was able to play deep into the round and not get rattled."
The win was the first for Dartmouth in this event since Gordon Cook captured the title in 1986. Welty's victory was the first for any Dartmouth golfer to win any tournament since Steve Sugarman '97 won the Black Knight Invitational in the spring of 1997.
Despite the victory, Welty plans to use the same approach for the rest of the year.
"At the beginning of the year, I told myself I was going to win a tournament," he said. "I didn't know if it would be this one or the final one. Now I'm going to go out and tell myself to win another tournament."
The win also provided a lift for the team, who was at a disadvantage in their first tournament of the year, playing against teams who had already competed.
"We fought back and passed teams like Brown and Yale who we feel we should be ahead of," Welty said.
