The Dartmouth women's golf team traveled to Princeton, N.J., last weekend, riding the momentum of a first-place finish in the Dartmouth Invitational. Although the Big Green played well, shooting a combined three-round score of 936, it placed eighth in a strong field at the Princeton Invitational.
The 12-team event, held at Springdale Golf Club, began with two full 18-hole rounds on Saturday and a third round on Sunday. Dartmouth tallied scores of 313 and 314 the first day and finished strong with 309 in the final round. Harvard University placed first with a combined score of 906.
Jane Lee '15 led Dartmouth, tying for 10th place with scores of 74, 76 and 76 in the three rounds. Heather Roland '12, who shot scores of 75, 79 and 78, said the performance was her best as a Dartmouth player.
"I think it was my first tournament without a score in the 80s, which was exciting," she said.
Dartmouth's other scorers included Sarah Knapp '14, who shot a 235, Kathleen Quirk '12, who shot a 247, and team captain Marietta Smith '12, who shot a 254. Harvard freshman Tiffany Lim won the tournament with a score of 213, three under par.
Roland said the 30-stroke difference between Dartmouth and first-place Harvard is not as large as it first appears.
"It's really only around two strokes a person to improve to get there," she said. "Almost all the scores were pretty close, especially with three 18-hole rounds."
The lone exception was Mount St. Mary's University, which struggled to a 12th-place score of 1,044 a full 80 strokes behind 11th-place Siena College.
After only two tournaments for the Big Green, Lee has already become a bright spot for the team.
"She's very consistent for us and she has a great attitude," Smith said. "Despite a very long bus ride that she wasn't quite prepared for, she came off and had the energy and spark as her bubbly self."
Roland added that Lee, who is from New Zealand, faces other difficulties playing for an American team.
"In New Zealand they do everything in meters, and so [Lee] was explaining to us that for every single shot, when she calculates the yardage, she has to convert it in her mind to meters, which adds another additional stressor," she said. "I can't even imagine having to deal with that freshman year on top of just starting college tournaments."
Despite the team's healthy scores, Big Green golfers acknowledged room for improvement.
"Two years ago, these scores would have been great for us, but we're realizing that although we're improving, the other [Ivy League teams] are also improving at the same time," Smith said.
The tournament differed from the Dartmouth Invitational significantly, which may have contributed to the team's eighth-place finish. Lee and Knapp were especially disadvantaged, as they had not played on the course before, Roland said.
Big Green players also said they only play a 36-round day once or twice during their season.
"Playing 36 holes is not something we do very often, and spending 10 hours on the golf course is definitely emotionally and physically draining," Roland said. "It's hard for me to focus because once I hit the 30th hole, it's about the time when it's like Get me off this golf course.'"
Smith added that even a normal 18-hole round takes approximately four hours longer than most typical sporting events. The extra wear from an additional round puts strain on players who must remain constantly engaged.
"It's not like you put someone on the bench or sub people out, so it's a different mindset," she said.
While Lee, Roland and Knapp shot worse in their second rounds, Smith improved by four strokes and Quirk shot a second-round 78 nine strokes better than her 87 in the first round.
The Big Green plays this weekend at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship at the Twisted Dune Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. Roland said the shorter tournament will be a welcome change.
"It's 18 holes, which will be a breeze compared to last weekend," she said.
