A shift in the weather patterns from windy to worse Tuesday morning forced the cancellation of the second leg of Georgetown’s Hoya Invitational in Beallsville, Md.
The Penn women’s golf team, which played 36 holes on Monday, ended the tournament tied for third place with Princeton in the 17-team field of competition. Nova Southeastern and Yale finished first and second, respectively.
Both coach Mark Anderson and freshman standout Michelle Lee said they felt the ending was premature, and that the Quakers would have been able to push out of the draw for a higher-place finish had the show continued.
On Monday, the team shot a 636 overall, with scores of 319 and 317 in the first and second rounds, respectively. Lee, who tied for 14th place with Nova’s Taylor Collins and Georgetown’s Joan Dulieu, showed considerable improvement between rounds, shaving five strokes off her initial score of 82 to come out of the second 18 with a 77 (+5). Anderson praised the marked boost, citing Lee’s comeback as the highlight of the tournament.
“Anytime you play 36 holes, especially in tough conditions, it’s certainly a mental and physical grind,” Anderson said.
But even after two runs of the 6,125-yard course, Lee said she wished the team could have had the opportunity to use the mental toughness they displayed in battling the weather.
“I was disappointed,” Lee said. “We were nine behind Yale [for second place] and we were confident that we could definitely catch up to them.”
And it seems that out-muscling the Bulldogs is always on her mind. Following the C&F; Bank Intercollegiate two weeks ago, Lee stressed again her frustration at falling short of Yale, when Bulldogs freshman Seo Hee Moon took the tournament by six strokes.
This time, Moon finished tied with Penn’s Isabel Han for ninth. Lee said the inconsistencies in Moon’s play only further affirm for the Quakers that beating Yale and maintaining their position as Ivy League champions is not out of reach.
“You never know who’s going to win,” Lee added.
In the 10 days they have before they make their next appearance in Suffern, N.Y., for the Roar-EE Invitational, Lee and the Quakers will be sticking to the greens.
“All we need to do is not get any three-putts — just save one or two-putts here or there,” Lee explained. “That’s what’s going to make us champions.”
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