Golfers swinging at home

Author: Jeff Patterson

At one point on Friday night, Weather.com's hour-by hour forecast predicted a 90 percent chance of rain for every hour of Saturday and Sunday. When the weekend came, putts dropped instead of rain, and the fairly high (for mid-September in Vermont) temperatures came pretty close to matching the fairly low golf scores. The pace of play was reasonable, a rare occurrence in tournament golf, and the Middlebury men's golf team totaled their lowest score in the three years that senior captain Mitch St. Peter has teed it up for the Panthers, as they finished fifth.

The golfing success of the Williams Ephs, who won the 22nd annual Duke Nelson Invitational golf tournament, was anything but ephemeral. Williams, which represented the NESCAC in last year's men's golf NCAA championship mastered the Ralph Myhre golf course. Of the 24 teams that competed, in this 24-hour (over two-day) event, Skidmore, NYU and Salem State finished second, third and fourth respectively.

Indeed, the ephor Eph, Matt Slovitt, was the weekend's best player and at the conclusion of the tournament was presented the heavy, medalist, wood-engraved plaque for turning-in a two-day total of 143 (+ 1).

Beaney's Babies, led by Bellmare 07', Baumann '08, and Bane '08 (Chad, Geordy and Harry) did not disappoint. Bellmare finished tied for sixth with a career best, six-over, 148. Chad moved up the leaderboard by birdying two of his last three holes. On the par-4 third, his final hole, in the shotgun style format, Bellmare looked anything but panicked before he finessed a 15-footer into the center of the cup. Afterwards Bellmare gave a fistpump to his teammate and friend, Bane, who had finished his round and was looking on.

Senior Derek Singer's final round 75, was Paul Azinger-like and combined with Baumann's Sunday 75, the scores were Barry Sea-Tow-like as they pulled the Panthers to within nine shots of the eventual winning score. With Mitch St. Peter's two rounds of 78 all five of the Panther players had broken 80 over both days. "Not many teams are capable of posting ten consecutive rounds in the seventies. [And we just did]," said Bane, who played as Middlebury's number one golfer, in what was his first collegiate tournament.

"Since Slovitt won at our place I'm going to have to win at their place," said Bellmare. Beaney's Babies make the trip to Taconic Golf Club for this weekend's Williams Invitational. Bellmare's last round in Williamstown was also a 74 and if his putter remains hot, he is more than capable of getting payback.

Middlebury Blue team finished 21st overall as they beat St, Michael's, American International University and Franklin Pierce. The Blue team gained valuable tournament experience and almost gave Wesleyan and Amherst a fight.

While the men were at home, enjoying local knowledge, the Lady Linksters were one state over participating in the Dartmouth Invitational. After the first day Middlebury was in 12th place out of 17 teams - most of whom are D-I, scholarship-giving schools, but by the end they were in 10th place, very close to the middle of the pack.

The Ortega twins '07 (Kerry and Allison) fired a respectable 83 and 86 respectively on Saturday. On day two, Kerry's six over par 78, landed her in a tie for 27th while first-year Julie Ellenburger's Sunday 83 placed her tied for 52nd. Columbia University won the Invitational and Sienna finished in the runner-up position.