Golfers fare well in weekend meets

Author: Jeff Patterson

The men's and women's golf teams came home from the Bay State with top-ten finishes and new confidence that will be useful as they head into their upcoming NESCAC championships. As the leaves start to turn, the Panthers will hope to keep up their good play.

The Women's golf team finished fifth, 16 shots off of the lead to Wellesley, while Boston University, the University of Hartford and St. Lawrence rounded out the top four. The Panthers crushed Amherst at the Orchards Golf Club - Mount Holyoke's home track - by a whopping 84 shots and Williams by 83.

Kerry Ortega '07 led the team again, this time finishing 10th overall. Her score of 167 (84, 83) was pat-on-the-back material, considering that when the 2004 U.S. Women's Open was held at the same course, professionals Russamee Gulyanamitta, Emilee Klein, and Leah Hart each shot 83 and Kylie Pratt shot 84.

First-year Julie Ellenberger, had fond memories going into the tournament because she was a standard bearer for Pat Hurst back at the United States Golf Association event. Over the weekend, Ellenberger was carried by her bag and shot a first-day 85. "It was a great opportunity to play a really nice course," Ellenberger said. On Sunday, Tory MacNeil '08 signed for an 82, the lowest score the Lady Linksters had all tournament.

Further west, Skidmore won last weekend's Williams Invitational in a playoff with Nebraska-Wesleyan, where Middlebury placed ninth. The pace of play was slow in the first round, which was suspended due to darkness.

When both teams tied after two days of competition, the deciding score came down to the fifth players' scores. Skidmore's fifth player, Tobin Spector, shot a 77 for a total of 160, while Nebraska-Wesleyan's Jeff Holm had a second day 85, giving him 163.

Senior Derek Singer came back to score an even par 71 on Sunday. He attacked Taconic early on, birdying three of his first five holes. His first of five Sunday birdies was hatched on the seventh, a tricky 402 yard dog-leg left, that the field played at an average of 76 strokes over-par. Two holes later on the picturesque par-three ninth, the "Niskayuna (N.Y.) Natural" tapped in a two footer that was set-up by a sweet six-iron.

Singer, after talking with his teammates on Saturday night, knew that his first day score (which became 87) was not going to count in the play-five, count-four format, so on his morning mop-up holes, he experimented with his swing. Although he had been swinging well on Saturday, but he was not seeing results. "Golf's a funny game. Everything seemed to be working for me [on Sunday, whereas it didn't Saturday]."

The tweaking paid off for the economics major, as his second-round performance was twinkling. His putts dropped and he scored a 24 on the day. Singer one-putted his first six greens and if it were not for a miss-clubbed tee shot on the par-three 14th, he could have shot under-par or better.

The best Middlebury score came from Geordy Baumann '08. After a 79 on Saturday, he shot a three-over 74 on Sunday. He made 11 pars on the day and is now the only member of the team to have all of his tournament rounds this year in the 70s.

Beaney's Babies will be back at Taconic for this weekend's NESCAC championship.