The men's golf team continued its strong fall season last weekend at the ECAC Men's Division I Championships, finishing sixth out of the 14-team field.
The team posted the low score of the second day, but was done in by an uncharacteristically poor first round.
Davis Mullany '11 was only two strokes behind the leader after the opening round of the tournament and had a real shot at winning his second individual trophy of the fall before a tough finish on the second day.
Mullany was, for the fourth time this fall, Dartmouth's top individual finisher, placing 10th overall with an impressive first round of 70 on a par 71 course, and finishing with a total score of 148.
Not far behind Mullany were teammates Jamie Wallace '08, Dave Putney '10 and Rob Henley '09 who shot 153, 154 and 155 respectively.
Wallace finished tied for 23rd, Putney finished tied for 28th and Henley finished tied for 36th.
While the finishes from the trio were certainly respectable, the total scores are somewhat misleading. All three men struggled mightily in the opening round, with Wallace firing an 80, Putney carding an 82 and Henly shooting an 81.
"We had a very bad first day and a solid second day," said Wallace, who is a team captain. "Other than Mullany the first day, we played terribly and were tied for 12th out of 14 after round one."
The trio of more experienced golfers bounced back admirably on the second day, and was accompanied by the team's fifth man for the weekend, Ryan Choi '11. Choi shot a total of 161 and finished in a tie for 58th, but came back from his opening round with a 77 in the second, edging Mullany by a shot and dropping the team's total by one.
While the Big Green really turned it around on day two, the team had left itself with too much ground to make up.
The team's score of 296 on day two left Dartmouth with a 609 total score -- 13 behind tournament champion Saint Bonaventure University.
"We showed that the first day was a fluke during the second round by firing the low team score of the day in windy conditions, and jumping all the way to sixth" Wallace said.
"We shot ourselves in the foot the first day, though."
The team struggled the first day, in part, because of the venue. The host course of the tournament, Shelter Harbor Golf Club in Charlestown, R.I. played very tough.
"The course itself was great, the best, fastest greens we will play all year" Wallace said. "It was a pretty tough golf course, though. It required good shots to shoot a good score; you couldn't get away with squirrelly shots."
Although the finish was disappointing, the very solid second-day score bodes well for the team both in next weekend's New England Intercollegiate Golf Association Championship and in the spring's Ivy League Championship.
At the ECAC tournament, Dartmouth finished ahead of three Ivy League rivals, Harvard, Yale and Brown.
The players eagerly anticipate next weekend's action up in Brewster, Mass. on the Captain's Club Golf Course.
"We are really looking forward to the New England Championships next weekend, which is our biggest tournament of the fall" Wallace said. "A good weekend there could really make our solid fall season into a great one."
