The Dartmouth women's golf team continued its spring season competing in the Dartmouth Triangular against Harvard and Brown this past weekend. Playing at the Cape Cod Country Club in Hatchville, Mass., the team pulled off a second-place finish, falling behind Harvard and topping Brown.
What was intended to be a two-round event was cut short to one when rainy weather prevented play on Sunday. In the first round on Saturday, the team shot a combined 322, compared with a 309 for Harvard and a 334 for Brown. Each team consists of five players, and the lowest individual score in each round is dropped from the final tally.
Hayley Stevens '07 led the Big Green, shooting a 76, which proved to be the third-best round in the tournament. The other four members of the team each shot in the low eighties: Ann Kapusta '07 shot an 81, Sunny Zhang '10 an 82, Lauren Strickler '09 an 83, and Annie Daher '07 an 85. Harvard proved to be tough competition, with four of its team players shooting in the seventies.
Individual performances, which are from players who are not included in the team score but who also participate in the tournament, include an 88 shot by Elizabeth Dupuy '08 and a 90 by Tory Sheppard '09. Interestingly, the best performance over the weekend was from a Harvard player who was playing individually, shooting a 73.
Tournaments are not often shortened due to weather concerns, but the phenomenon is not unheard of.
Being in the Still North has put the Big Green at a significant disadvantage in preparing for their spring tournaments this season. Dartmouth has had to overcome a severely abbreviated practice regimen due to the closure of the area's golfing venues because of the cold spring and persistent snow.
"Our expectations were not too high," Stevens said of the team's mindset coming into the competition. "Because of the weather it has been really difficult to practice. We just went out there and tried to play smartly and avoid the big numbers."
Even with the disadvantage, the Big Green was still able to pound Brown by 12 strokes, and was closer to victory than to third place.
"I'm just proud of our team for playing pretty well even without having practiced outside these past few weeks," Stevens added.
The team has had experience playing at Cape Cod. Dartmouth has competed against Harvard and Brown at Hatchville each spring season since 2005; Harvard has won each of the three competitions held at Cape Cod. After finishing third in 2005, Dartmouth has beaten out Brown each of the past two tournaments.
In the 2007 Triangular, the course was slightly altered from the past two years.
"Our coach extended the course's length by moving the tee boxes, so it played a little longer than it has the previous two years," Stevens said.
The 2007 spring season for Dartmouth consists of four tournaments, three of which have already been played. The Big Green finished third out of eight in the Embry Riddle Golf Classic at Daytona, Fl., over the weekend of March 22 to 23 to kick off its spring season. The following weekend at the William and Mary Invitational, Dartmouth finished a disappointing 17th out of 19; the Big Green certainly showed a marked improvement in the Dartmouth Invitational as compared to William and Mary. Dartmouth concludes its spring season this weekend with the Ivy League Championships, which will be held in Absecon, N.J.
