Senior Josh Goldenberg finished tied for 18th, helping the Quakers to a second place finish in the Princeton Invitational at Springdale Golf Club. (File Photo)
It's already the first week of April, and the Quakers are trying to find their form before the season comes to a close.
Over the weekend, Penn men’s and women’s golf traveled to New Jersey to play in the Princeton Invitational at Springdale Golf Club and Match Madness at Fox Hollow Golf Club, respectively. With high levels of Ancient Eight competition, the tournaments served as good measures for where the Quakers stand just two weeks away from the Ivy League Championship.
For the men, the weekend was highlighted by consistent play from the five golfers who teed it up at the par-71 Springdale Golf Club. The Red and Blue finished in second place among a 13-team field, the highest they have placed in a competition this season.
“[The Princeton Invitational] was very big personally to build momentum going forward. It was huge for the team as we look for an Ivy League Championship in a couple weeks and just having a solid finish against Ivy League competition,” sophomore Mitchell Cornell said.
In three rounds of play, the Quakers shot 281-275-287 for a 9-under-par 843 on Saturday and Sunday, 14 strokes behind first-place Yale. While the Red and Blue were able to stay in second place throughout the competition, they were never able to catch up with the Bulldogs, whose lead continued to grow after each round.
Cornell paved the way for Penn, as the sophomore finished the competition 8-under-par and tied for third individually.
“It was important that I stayed process-oriented the whole time and not get ahead of myself. I was confident that my best is just as good as anybody else’s,” Cornell said.
In addition to Cornell’s outstanding play, senior Carter Thompson, who is also a DP staffer, finished the weekend tied for eighth, and senior Josh Goldenberg finished tied for 18th.
On the women’s side, the Quakers competed in Match Madness this weekend at the Fox Hollow Golf Club in Branchburg, N.J., where they finished fourth among an eight-team field.
The match-play competition began for fourth-seeded Penn on Saturday morning against Ivy League rival and fifth-seeded Columbia. The Quakers won in dominating fashion, taking five of the six matches.
Advancing to the semifinals in the afternoon, the Red and Blue found themselves facing top-seeded Delaware. Penn tied with the Blue Hens, splitting the matches 3-3. Unfortunately for the Quakers, however, Delaware won the tiebreaker with more winning holes than Penn and advanced to the finals.
“We played a different format than we usually play this weekend, and we practiced it over the last couple weeks," coach Mark Anderson said. "Sometimes, it literally comes down to one hole — you have one bad shot or you have a three-putt somewhere. That can be the difference in the match."
On Sunday, the Red and Blue faced Harvard in the third-place match, where Penn lost to the Crimson by a score of 4.5-1.5.
“This was our last tournament before Ivies, and I feel really good even though we lost. We played well in our first two matches, and we were hanging with Harvard for most of the day. We just lost by a couple holes in some of the matches, so it was close,” Anderson said.
As the regular season comes to an end, the men will have one more chance to play — at the Yale Spring Invitational — before the Ivy League Championship. For the women, it’s their next stop.
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