The women’s golf team traveled south on I-91 last weekend, Sept. 26-27, to The Orchards Golf Club in South Hadley, Massachusetts for Mount Holyoke’s fall invitational. The Panthers finished third in the 14-team field and collectively shot 646, good for 70 over par, for the weekend. Williams won the tournament by shooting 605, only 29 over par, for the tournament.
Middlebury’s Saturday score of 319, their lowest round this season, allowed them to walk off the course Saturday evening in second place, two shots ahead of Amherst and four ahead of NYU. However, NYU had a terrific Sunday and cut 11 shots off of their Saturday score to shoot a 312 on Sunday and overtake Middlebury in second place. The Panthers round of 327 on Sunday, however, was good enough to finish five strokes ahead of Amherst.
Katharine Fortin ’18 was Middlebury’s low scorer for the tournament. She fired a 76 (four over par) on Saturday, putting her four shots off the lead going into the clubhouse Saturday evening and extending her streak to three straight rounds under 80. Fortin lost that streak on Sunday when she shot an 84,12 over par, but still grabbed her second top ten finish in as many weeks as she tied for tenth place.
New additions Helen Dailey ’19 and Lilia Everson ’19 also had productive weekends for the Panthers. Daily, Middlebury’s second-lowest scorer, posted rounds of 80 and 82, and finished 18 over par for the weekend. Everson finished the weekend 25 over par with a two-day total of 169, but showed significant improvement from Saturday to Sunday. After shooting a 90 on Saturday, she bounced back on Sunday, firing a 79 for the seventh best round of the day.
Hope Matthews ’18, usually the team’s number two, struggled this weekend. After shooting rounds of 82 and 79 at the Mount Holyoke Tournament last year, she shot an 85 on Saturday and an 82 on Sunday to finish the weekend 23 over par. Without the presence of the team’s only senior Monica Chow ’16 at the tournament, Theodora Yoch ’17 was the most senior player who took the course for the Panthers. The inconsistency that plagued Yoch last year reared its ugly face again as sat in eighth place after a 78 on Saturday only to shoot 10 strokes worse on Sunday for an 88. On Sunday Yoch could not keep the pace she set on Saturday, as she added 10 strokes to shoot an 88 and finish in 22nd place.
No team’s performance last weekend came close to that of Williams, which has won both of the tournaments Middlebury has participated in. Williams followed up their impressive round of 614 two weeks ago at the NYU Invitational with an astoundingly low score of 605 last weekend. Their success at the Mount Holyoke invite was punctuated by their second round score of 298. All five Ephs players finished in the top five on the individual leader board, led by Cordelia Chan who was four under on Sunday and just one over par for the tournament.
Next up for the women’s squad is the Middlebury Invitational at Ralph Myhre Golf Course this Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 2-3. After a weekend off, the men’s golf team is primed for NESCAC qualifiers at Williams Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 2-3, where they will begin their defense of the NESCAC title.
