This past weekend, the Dartmouth men's golf team traveled to Providence, R.I., to compete in the New England Division I Men's Golf Championship. The team finished in the middle of the field of 13 teams, earning fifth-place honors with the solid performances of Davis Mullany '10 and captain Jamie Wallace '08.
The Big Green's best score of the weekend came from Mullany, who followed up a Saturday score of 73, one over par, with a one-under-par 71 on Sunday. Mullany finished in a three-way tie for fourth place.
"I played well, but I think I could have done better both days," Mullany said. "I had two great starts, but I didn't keep up that pace, which was disappointing. However, I was extremely pleased with [an individual] fourth-place finish heading into the Ivy League championship."
Wallace finished the weekend strong, coming through with an even-par 72 after a 75 on Saturday to finish the tournament with a score of 147, three strokes over par. That score was good enough for an eighth-place individual finish, one place worse than his finish last weekend at the Yale Spring Open.
"I played pretty solidly but I threw away a few shots that I will hopefully not do this coming week at Ivies," Wallace said.
The Big Green's top four posted a total score of 606, one shot better than Ivy League rival Brown University, which came in sixth, but eight shouts behind Harvard, which finished fourth, and 23 shots behind tournament winner Yale University.
The Bulldogs had the top two golfers in the tournament, as junior Colby Moore won the tournament shooting twin rounds of 70, to finishing four under par on the weekend, and sophomore Ben Wescoe placed second with a total score of 143, one shot under par.
The tournament was played at Triggs Memorial Golf Course in Providence, R.I. The course features long par fours and relatively short par fives.
"The course was relatively easy because of its four short, reachable par fives," Mullany said. "But the greens were very quick, which was quite surprising considering that it is this early in the year. It took a little getting used to."
Wallace agreed with Mullany as he suggested that putting needs to improve before next weekend.
"The greens were infinitely better than last week at Yale," Wallace said. "However, they were sneakily fast, which made three-putts almost unavoidable. Still, we had too many of them this weekend and we can't have that at Ivies."
While the Big Green golfers may have been frustrated by the fast greens, they were at least greeted with decent weather, something that has eluded them since they returned from their West Coast spring break trip.
"On Saturday the conditions were good -- warm and sunny," Wallace said. "The second day was chilly and windy, but at least there was no rain. The weather leading up to the tournament helped ensure that the course was playable, and it was certainly in better shape than the Yale course, but it was still not great."
Rob Henley '09 pointed out that although there was improvement from last week, the team must continue to improve in order to do well at the Ivy League Championship.
"We definitely did better this weekend but losing to Harvard [University] and Yale means that we need to play better next weekend," Henley said. "Next weekend we need to get four good scores each round instead of the one or two we have had over the past two weekends."
Henley finished the tournament tied for 44th place with a score of 79-82-161. Egan finished tied for 27th, shooting 79-77-156.
"Davis [Mullany] and Jamie [Wallace] both played very well," Henley said. "It was kind of unfortunate that the rest of the team couldn't back up their play."
This weekend the golf team heads to New Jersey for the Ivy League Men's Golf Championship. The tournament will be played at the Galloway National Golf Club, on April 19-20. The tournament has 54 holes, with two rounds of 18 being played on Saturday and a third round played on Sunday. Last spring, the team tied for sixth with Princeton University, while the University of Pennsylvania won the tournament.
The women's golf team was off this past weekend but will also be traveling to New Jersey, to the Atlantic City Country Club, where it will compete in the Ivy League Women's Championship. Last year, the team finished in sixth place.
