Ephs fall to 10th at Duke Nelson Invitational

MIDDLEBURY, VT — Difficult conditions led to a frustrating day of golf for the Williams men’s team, as they dropped two places in the standings and finished 10th out of 22 teams in this year’s Duke Nelson Invitational. In addition to the challenging, early-morning weather conditions, the Ephs fell victim to “a number of mental and strategical mistakes,” according to head coach Rick Pohle.

“There was a time we could show up and pretty much be assured a top 2-3 position finish in most tournaments,” recognized Pohle, “but everyone's programs have been taken up a notch and we have to respond.”

After round one yesterday, the Ephs found themselves in 8th place with a total score of 307, but in round two the team shot a total of 318, landing them in 10th. These scores are particularly disappointing considering that the team shot a 302 and 303 in the two days of last year’s invitational, finishing in 2nd place behind Skidmore.

It was indeed Skidmore who took first place again this year with an impressive score of 593. NYU and Trinity College finished dead even for 2nd each posting a score of 606. Salem State (611) and Middlebury-White (616) rounded out the top five.  The best overall performance was by NYU's Alex Hopson (144), who shot an incredible score of 69 in his first round.

Despite a high team score, several Williams golfers had respectable performances during this weekend’s event. After a superb showing in day one (73), sophomore Drew Murray shot only an 80 today, but still finished with the best two day score of any Eph (153), tying him for 22nd on the overall leaderboard. Siwol Chang also had a nice weekend with a total of 156, as did sophomores Bob Camp and Jack Killea who both shot scores of 158. Seniors Matt Felser (162), Rahul Bahl (159), and Galen Jackson (159) all put forth strong efforts as well.

“Conditions today were extremely difficult,” remarked Jackson, “and although none of us were particularly happy with the way we played, I’m proud of the way we grinded it out. We’re looking forward to improving on our performance next weekend at our place.”

The team will resume play this coming Friday for round two of the Tour de Golf, which began this past Friday in Middlebury. Williams got off to a two point lead over Middlebury’s Panthers (28-26) and is leading Babson College by a sizable 28 to 9 score. The tournament is a seven-man match format event and will begin at 1:00PM at the Taconic Golf Club.

The Tour de Golf leads into the 20 team Williams Invitational to take place this weekend at Taconic, starting at 1:30 Saturday afternoon. The squad will have to regroup from this weekend’s let down and concentrate on cutting down mental errors if they are to succeed in this weekend’s tournament.

Next weekend, the team will head back to Middlebury for the NESCAC Tournament, which will determine what four teams will participate in next spring’s NESCAC Championship and the NCAA Qualifier.

But before they get there, the team will have to re-establish itself as a force in the region, as it has been for the past several years. “Our past players worked very hard to establish our expectation level,” concluded Pohle, “and we have to work that much harder to stay there. I am sure we will impress that upon all of our players."

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