The women’s golf team looked sharp this weekend, turning in a third place finish at Mt. Holyoke’s Orchards Golf Club. Thirteen schools competed at the event, and only Williams and New York University managed better scores than Amherst’s combined 642. Nina Yoo ’12 set the bar high for the Jeffs with a two-day score of 157 and a first-round team-best 75. In fact, Yoo’s 75 was the second-lowest score posted for a round the whole weekend, a testament to her impressive performance.
“I was swinging really well this weekend and everything seemed to fall into place out there,” said Yoo. “It was great to be out there on the course playing in gorgeous weather.”
Hayley Milbourn ’11 and Elaine Lin ’12 both battled back from first-round struggles, producing 77s on Sunday to finish out Amherst’s top-three scorers. First-years Sooji Choi and Kristen Lee’s scores also counted to the team score, contributing to a third-place standing in the 13-team tournament. “The Orchards is a challenging course and I was happy to see the team rally through the tough holes,” Yoo said. “Our third place finish was disappointing for everyone, but it gives us motivation to improve for this upcoming weekend at Middlebury.”
Women’s golf again showed off its team’s deep talent pool this weekend, as Amherst and Williams were the only two schools to have five players with sub-175 scores for the two rounds. However, Williams still finished 26 strokes below Amherst’s total and 25 strokes below second-placed NYU. “We are not as good as Williams right now,” said Coach Michelle Morgan. “We need to work harder than they do in practice to get ‘just that much better’ each time we swing a club and play a hole. We could be much better than we are within the context of playing intercollegiate golf while pursuing a vigorous academic program.” The team’s performance highlights the brimming potential for the Jeffs’ young season. They play again next weekend in the two-day Middlebury Invitational at the Ralph Myhre Golf Course.
Men
The men’s golf placed 12th of 19 teams at William’s Taconic Golf Club this weekend, displaying some mixed results. Nate Belkin ’12 led the team in scoring with a two-round score of 157, good enough for a share of 27th overall. The tournament was the team’s third of the year. Nicholas Koh ’14 posted the team’s second best score with his combined 160. “Saturday’s 84 was pretty disappointing personally, so I really spent some time figuring out what was the problem,” said Koh on his weekend’s performance. “On Sunday I was really going for Will Ferrell in ‘Talladega Nights,’ like when he learns to drive again with a mountain lion in the car, as absurd as that sounds.” The image might seem absurd, but there is no arguing with the results — Koh shot a 76 Sunday, a team-low for the tournament.
Trip Wray ’11 shot an 83 on Saturday and an 80 on Sunday for a tournament score of 163. Mark Colp ’12 shot a steady 82 in both rounds for a combined 164, and Ben Johnston ’13 finished out the Jeffs’ five-man team. “We’ve got a great group of guys this year,” said Koh. “Middlebury and Williams were a little disappointing, so we’re really looking forward to coming out and swinging the club freely this weekend at Trinity.”
No one should judge the result too harshly, as sporadic crooked-number scores pulled down the team’s overall ranking. The Jeffs will look to eliminate those conspicuous rounds as they move into the full swing of the season. The team plays again Oct. 2, in the NESCAC Championship Qualifiers at Trinity College. If the team finishes in the top four, it will advance to the conference championships in the spring.