While the men’s golf team headed north to Middlebury College’s Duke Nelson Invitational, the women’s team stayed closer to home, playing nearby at the Mt. Holyoke Invitational. After playing through Sunday’s rain, the men left Middlebury in 17th place of 21 teams after two days of consistent scoring while the women emerged as runners-up in their tournament of 13 teams, thanks partly to junior Hayley Milbourn’s individual title.

Men

Despite Sunday’s poor weather conditions, the Jeffs added just three strokes to their team score, posting a 331 on Sunday to bring their two-day total to 661. The team managed to defeat Little Three foe Wesleyan University by 11 strokes, but fell to other NESCAC competitors Trinity College (second, 619), Middlebury College (third, 621), Williams College (fifth, 626), Hamilton College (T-seventh, 638) and Tufts University (T-seventh, 638).

The Jeffs were led by sophomore Nate Belkin and junior Trip Wray for the third time in this fall’s three tournaments. This weekend, Belkin’s +15 157 just beat Wray’s +16 158 as the two golfers finished tied for 26th and 28th, respectively, in the field of 105.

Belkin emphasized the difficulties the Jeffs faced on the par-71 course. “On day one there was a lot of wind, and on day two there was cold, rainy weather. The conditions had more of an effect on us than they did on other teams,” said Belkin. “Although we showed signs of playing well, as seen on the various positive contributions on day one, on day two our inconsistency showed and it hurt us.”

Wray echoed his teammate’s evaluation of the tournament. “This weekend the golf course played pretty hard because of tough weather conditions. As a result, it was easy to hit some high numbers on some holes,” said the junior, who posted rounds of 82 and 76. “Personally, I felt that the first day, I just could not catch a break. The second day, though, I was able to grind out a score despite the rain.”

Rounding out the Jeffs’ scoring in the tournament, where only the best eight rounds of 10 counted towards the team score, were Alex Butensky ’13 (169 +27 T-73rd), Mike Belkin ’12 (180 +38 T-94th) and Matt Parsons ’12 (183 +41 T-100th).

Next weekend, the Jeffs will travel to Williams for the NESCAC Qualifier. Belkin expressed the team’s optimism for the upcoming tournament. “Throughout the past month we have shown signs of playing quality golf, and we expect for it to show next week despite our lower than average performance this past weekend at Middlebury.”

Women

The women, competing at The Orchards just minutes away, faced 12 competitors and succeeded in topping 11 of them on the familiar course. Edging the Jeffs’ team score of 655 was St. Lawrence University, who posted a team total of 643. Though women’s golf is not a NESCAC sport, Amherst can certainly take pride in its defeat of conference teams Williams College (third, 667) and Middlebury College (10th, 726).

The Jeffs finished Saturday’s play in second place and remained there on Sunday, despite St. Lawrence’s widening gap over Amherst.

“We played to get into a great position on the leader board after the first day — in second place by only two shots,” said sophomore Elaine Lin. “This really motivated us for the second day. Unfortunately, on Sunday, it rained for the entire round, which was a substantial obstacle in playing solid competitive golf.”

Hayley Milbourn ’11 led the Jeffs in scoring with a +10 154 to capture the individual title by four strokes. Milbourn emphasized the importance of experience in her success.

“As a junior, I have played The Orchards golf course more times than I can remember so I had an advantage over most golfers in the field,” said Milbourn. “During the rainy day on Sunday I knew that if I tried my best not to dwell on how miserable the weather was, I would probably post a decent score.”

Liz Monty ’13 finished in a tie for eighth with a score of 163. Lin and fellow sophomore Laura Monty finished with scores of +19 163 and +23 167, respectively to tie for 13th and 20th in the 80-golfer field.

Alex Chang-Graham ’10 rounded out the scoring with a score of +58 202 in tie for 64th. Irene Hickey ’13 also competed but was not entered as a scorer, tying for 27th with a score of +30 174. Both Nina Yoo ’12 and captain Kinne Schwartz ’10, two of the team’s top scorers, missed the tournament because of prior engagements.

Next weekend, the Jeffs will compete at the Middlebury Invitational, where they will look to build on this weekend’s success.

Lin expressed hope for the coming tournament.

“This week we will be practicing our short game a lot to help us put together two good rounds for the tournament this weekend at Middlebury,” she said.

Milbourn looked even further ahead for her tournament predictions. “This is the best, most determined team I’ve seen in three years and I am positive that we will have a good chance at winning the next few tournaments.”