Golf teams face crazy weather

In their second tournament of the spring season, the men’s team came away with a win, while the women’s team placed fifth out of 13 teams. Battling wind and rain, the women’s team competed at Amherst College and the men’s team competed at Hamilton College.
Placing in the top spot for the Panther men was captain Jimmy Levins ’11 in third place with a score of 77 for the day. Just one stroke behind was Andrew Emerson ’13 in fourth place at 78 strokes. Rounding out in the top eight was William Prince ’13 in fifth place with a score of 79 and Max Alley ’14 in eighth place with a score of 80. Brian Cady ’14 finished off for the team in 11th place shooting an 81. From Levins third place finish to Cady’s 11th place finish there was only a difference of five strokes indicating how close this day of golf was for the competitors.
This one-day tournament took place under extremely harsh conditions. In an outdoor sport like golf the uncontrollable weather has definite effect on the players performance. According to Levins, this is something that the team has to deal with especially in the spring.
“We played in some of the toughest conditions we will probably see this year, gusting winds, rain and even some hail,” said Levins. “I was very impressed with how the team stuck it out and got the job done. Playing in tough conditions is something we’re going to see a lot of in the spring, and we learn what adjustments we have to make, in terms of shot selection and mental approach, when the weather isn’t perfect.”
The girls fought against the same weather this past weekend at Amherst. Flora Weeks ’12 led the Panther women in fifth place with a score of 162. Caroline Kenter ’14 followed in 34th place, shooting 179 for the weekend. Only one stroke behind was Jessica Bluestein ’14 in 35th place with a score of 180. Rounding out the Panthers was Keeley Levins ’13 shooting a 182 and placing 37th.
The women’s team has next week off before their final regular season tournament at Williams on April 30 and May 1. The men’s team will travel to Williams next weekend before hosting the NESCAC championships the following weekend.
Although last weekend’s weather was not the best the men are looking forward to next weekend.
“We’re looking forward to next weekend at Williams where we’ll look to keep going in the right direction,” said Levins.