Haghani shines as men's golf shows improvement at Cornell Invitational

That's two in the books. 

In its second tournament of the year, Penn men's golf sent two teams to the annual Cornell Invitational, held on Sept. 19 and 20. The two-day, 36-hole event took place on the par-71 course at Watchung Valley Golf Club. 

The A team, which included seniors Carter Prince and Mark Haghani, juniors Andy Fan and Anthony Basilio, and sophomore Jimin Jung, finished in sixth place out of 12 teams. The B team, made up of seniors Jason Fan, Jason Langer, junior Harrison Ornstein, and freshmen George Roessler and John Richardson, finished in a tie for 11th place. 

Overall, the Quakers had a bounce-back performance, following a disappointing showing by both teams at the Ryan T. Lee Memorial Intercollegiate Cup the week prior.

The A team shot an overall 290-295–585 for the two rounds. The team was led by Haghani, who turned in a historic performance for the Quakers. During play on the 18th, he shot a career-best 6-under-par 65 heading to the final round. This was the best performance by a Red and Blue golfer in over a decade, when Max Marsico shot a 7-under-par 64 during the final round of the Princeton Invitational on Apr. 10, 2011. Haghani’s Sunday brilliance gave him sole possession of the lead among all individual golfers. 

While Haghani played well on Monday, his score of three-over-par 74 was not enough to win him the individual title. He was still able to tie for an impressive second in a field of 67 golfers. Haghani’s overall score of 139 was just three shots more than that of individual title Dugan McCabe of Colgate (136). Haghani was also able to record an overall score of -3 on par-3 holes throughout the tournament, which led all golfers.

Other strong performers for the A Team included Prince, who finished tied for 23rd after shooting a consistent 73-74-147 throughout both rounds, and Jung, who shot a solid 74-75-149 during the competition, finishing in a tie for 30th. Andy Fan shot a 78-73-151 to finish tied for 40th, and Basilio carded an 81-74-155 to finish tied for 58th. It was a nice bounce-back performance for the A Team, after finishing 13th out of 16 teams during the previous tournament.

The B Team shot an overall 308-300-608 for the two rounds. Strong performers for them include Jason Fan, who rebounded from a tough first round to finish 79-72-151 and finished tied for 40th, and Richardson, who finished 73-78-151 and also tied for 40th. Harrison Ornstein also bounced back from a rough first round with an eight-stroke improvement in the last 18 to finish with a final card of 80-72-152, which tied him for 45th overall. 

Rounding out the B Team was George Roessler, who finished 76-78-154 which left him in a tie for 54th.

Temple won the team tournament with an overall score of 566, finishing eight strokes better than second-place Colgate. The Quakers look to carry their momentum to Connecticut for the MacDonald Cup, annually hosted by Yale. They will tee off their two-day, 54-hole tournament this Saturday at the Course at Yale.