M. Gold plays bridesmaid at GW Invite

The Penn men's golf team finished a respectable second in a large field of 29 teams at the George Washington Invitational this past weekend. Still, nobody had to tell freshman golfer Peyton Wallace that second place is the first loser. "We certainly expected to win," Wallace said. "The field wasn't as strong as it was in East Carolina [two weeks ago]." The Quakers were forced to play in poor conditions during the Sunday-Monday tournament. They were met with rain on Sunday and strong winds on both Sunday and Monday. "The holes that seemed easy in the practice round became extremely hard on Sunday," junior Kyle Moran said. The rain that came on Sunday soaked the fairways, which prevented the ball from rolling. In addition, the greens had been recently aerated, so the tiny holes on the green caused for a bumpy ride for the Quakers' putting. On Sunday, the Red and Blue shot a combined 313 behind the good play of Wallace, Endel Liias and Chad Perman. The three freshmen each fired an opening round of 78. Kyle Moran posted a 79, and Mike Russell put up an 85. The Quakers certainly finished stronger than they started. On day two of the tournament, the squad shot a combined score of 304. Moran led the team over the two days by posting a 74 on the second day. Russell had the best score of the day with a 73, and Wallace duplicated his first-round score of 78 on the second day of competition. Liias shot 79, and Chad Perman shot 81. The team finished in a tie with Providence and five shots in back of first-place Iona. "We could have played better, and if we played better, we would have won," Moran said. Although the Quakers can blame some of their errors on the conditions, Wallace believes the team should put the onus on its own shoulders. "We made some stupid mistakes. We couldn't make a lot of putts," Wallace said. "It's not our fault that the greens were like they were, but everybody else was putting on them." With the Ivy League Championship coming within two weeks, Penn coach Francis Vaughn seemed a little bit upset with his team's performance. "He was pretty unhappy," Wallace said. "He drove the van home fast and didn't say a whole lot." Another probable reason the Quakers came up a little short this weekend can be attributed to a lack of experience. Russell, Wallace and Liias were participating in the starting five for the first time ever. Throw freshman Chad Perman into the mix, and Penn was left with four relatively inexperienced players out of the five starters. If the Quakers hope to win the Ivies in two weeks, they most likely will need their senior captain Rob Goldfaden, as well as senior Rob Hunt and junior Todd Golditch to be in the lineup. The Quakers' underclassmen certainly do not lack talent, but just like Michigan State's basketball team showed Monday night, talent plus maturity equals championship. Hopefully for the Quakers, Vaughn will be able to solve the equation for success this weekend as the Quakers travel to Annapolis, Md., to play in the Navy Invitational.

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