The golf teams, unique in their split season, enter the fall season after just a few months’ hiatus from spring play. The women qualified for the national tournament in May for the third time in program history and will return four of the five golfers from that tournament. The men failed to crack the top five at any tournament in 2008-09 but will rely on a young team to bolster their scores in this fall’s five tournaments.
Women
The women finished the 2009 NCAA tournament in 13th place, thanks to the fivesome of Elaine Lin ’12, Laura Monty ’12, Hayley Milbourn ’11, Amanda Otieno ’09 and Nina Yoo ’12, who all competed in Port St. Lucie, Fla., in May. This season, the Jeffs will attempt to build on that success.
“We hope to make a great transition coming off a national ranking of 13th, a NCAA championship experience for what was a very young team and their challenging experience of taking exams and competing on the same days. We are also coming off the most successful season in the history of the program: five tournament first place wins, a top five Dartmouth finish, two Scholar-Athletes [Monty and Yoo] and one All-American [Milbourn],” said Head Coach Michelle Morgan.
The team will not make its fall debut until the Dartmouth Invitational on Sept. 19. Until then, the Jeffs will make the most of practices as they incorporate a few new players. Captain Kinne Schwartz ’10 and Jordan Chafetz ’11 return from their spring study-abroad semesters while Liz Monty ’13 and Irene Hickey ’13 will play for Amherst for the first time.
After Dartmouth, the Jeffs will play four consecutive weekend tournaments, which will provide the young team with more tournament experience before the intense competition of spring arrives.
Morgan has high hopes for the team. “On paper, it is potentially the best scoring team that we have ever had. We’ll see whether they can rise to the occasion and develop a strong team dynamic that will foster individual and team success.”
Men
Though the men lacked the national success the women experienced, their 2008-09 tournament results marked a dramatic improvement from the previous year. The Jeffs will attempt to continue that progress in the fall.
With just six returning players and four golfers just graduated, the team hopes to overcome its lack of depth by emphasizing its strengths.
“We lost some important seniors last year, including three captains, so there will certainly be some new faces on the team this year,” said Mike Belkin ’11. “Several of our contributing players are returning from last year, so we still have a chance to be a solid squad. Our team certainly is not as deep as last year’s, but may actually be stronger at the top with our leading players gaining experience on the courses we all played last season.”
The men’s golf program, unlike the women’s, is an official NESCAC sport. Thus, the men will focus their efforts on the October NESCAC Qualifier. Belkin emphasized the importance of that tournament: “Our team goal for the fall will be to finish in the top four in the fall NESCAC championship at Williams. If we do that, we will be able to attempt to qualify for nationals in the spring.”