Golf swings to a close

Author: Jeff Paterson

Wellesley, the home team, had a 75 on the scoreboard and everyone waited anxiously for last scores to come in. This weekend was filled with waiting - Saturday's round had been rained out - so the team hung out at teammate Julie Ellenberger's house until play resumed on Sunday. "Coach was really nervous as we were waiting for the scores to come in. He was pacing all around," Tory MacNeil '08 said of George Phinney, the assistant women's golf coach. Sophomore Karen Levin, the team's last golfer to sign her card, totaled an 84, while Wellesley's number five golfer shot a 90. Because of this disparity, the Lady Linksters won the tournament by two shots. The team victory was "important" because it bumped the Panthers up in the Division III women's golf rankings to the 6th spot nationally. Wellesley fell to 11th overall. Two shots, five spots. Earlier in the year, Wellesley had won the Mt. Holyoke Invitational and Midd finished fifth, 16 shots out of the lead, but in the final tournament of the year it was a different story.

If the Panthers keep up this level of play in the spring, an NCAA tournament bid would not come as a surprise for anyone. Captain Heather Gallagher '07 will be returning from the University of St. Andrews, where she has been honing her game. You can take the Wellesley Golf Invitational as evidence that the team is balanced enough to carry the load. Levin's 12-over par round was one of three 84s shot by underclasswomen.

The mens team's totals of 320 and 319 highlighted the high winds that swirled around Cape Cod last week when Beaney's Babies participated in the 71st Annual New England Intercollegiate Golf Association Championship. Chad Bellmare '07, was focusing diligently so he would not succumb to the hocus-pocusing wind. He kept the ball in the fairway with knock-down shots and finished with a 75-77 score that was good enough for 17th place. Chad was chasing Husson's Ross McGee for the D-III medalist trophy, but McGee shot a sizzling back nine 34 and Bellmare double-bogeyed his last hole when he "airmailed an approach shot that he set-up perfectly." Regardless, Bellmare's autumn was awesome. In 11 events he averaged a 76.3 and amassed three top 10 finishes, one of which was a tie for second at the Skidmore Fall Classic. Harry Bane's and Geordy Baumann's stroke averages were also sub-80 at 77.6 and 78.2.

Forty-five teams from Division I, II and III schools participated in the tournament and the University of Rhode Island rode scores of 295 and 297 to an easy 10-shot win. Middlebury finished fifth out of the D-III schools. The spring season will be more than five months ahead, as the snow starts to fall, the golfers will have Carolina on their minds, as they dream of their annual trip to Pinehurst.