Dartmouth shot a 587 (+27) on the weekend, which placed them 22 strokes behind St. John's, but only seven strokes behind the second place Bulldogs.
After a tough first day, the team needed to rebound quickly in order to have any shot at placing in the top five.
"Given our position after the first day it turned out to be a pretty good weekend," co-captain Peter Williamson '12 said. "It was a better day out there in the afternoon than in the morning."
Dartmouth was tied for eighth after the team posted a 295 (+15) on the first day, led by James Pleat '13.
"We played OK, but not great," Pleat said. "Hopefully we can play a little better."
On the second day, Owen Lynch '13 helped the Dartmouth golf team get back on track by shooting a team-high, and one-under par, 69.
Coach Rich Parker said he is pleased with the play of the Big Green golfers. Parker noted the fact that the team placed second last week at the Hartford Hawk Invitational, four strokes behind the winner, St. John's for a close finish.
"I was pretty pleased we are getting better," he said. "We had a pretty good ride home from Yale which tells us how well we played."
Parker said it was a shining moment in the college career of Lynch, who finished the tournament in 18th place individually.
The problem, Parker said, was that the team collectively has difficulty putting together solid performances team scores are kept at golf tournaments as the combined total amount of shots among the best four players on the team.
"Rarely do our four best kids play their best golf together," Parker said. "We need it out of our four or five players."
Pleat and Williamson both had similar sentiments, saying that all of the Big Green golfers need to play well and that unfortunately they usually only get three people to play a solid round on a given day.
For the moment Parker said the Big Green players are looking forward to next weekend in order to further improve. The team will travel to Philadelphia, Penn., on Friday to compete in the Big-5 Invitational.
"This is going to be a bigger stage for us as it is a first class tournament," Parker said. "I want my kids to have this opportunity to participate and compete."
Pleat added that the Dartmouth golfers are ready for the tournament and hope to have a strong showing.
"We are excited to get the opportunity to play with some pretty good teams," he said.
This tournament is the biggest tournament of the fall, according to Williamson, and his teammate, Parker, agreed adding that it is one of the biggest of the year, second only, of course, to the Ivy League tournament.
"We need to over-achieve to beat some of these teams," Parker said. "But we are improving, working our way toward the third week in April [The Ivy League Tournament], which is every coach's dream."
Williamson said the team is feeling fairly confident about the way all of the individual golfers are currently performing. "I think it is safe to say that we are having a lot more fun than any other team out there," he said.
The Big Green men's golf team will make their next appearance on the links at the Big 5 Invitational from Oct. 8 to Oct. 10 in Philadelphia, Penn.
