The McLaughlin
Bethpage Red, Farmingdale, NY
September 17 & 18, 2010
Written by Mark Pollak '12
This weekend the Harvard Men's Golf Team traveled to Farmingdale, New York, to compete in the annual McLaughlin Golf Tournament. St. John's University is the tournament host for the event that is held annually at the Bethpage Red Course. Bethpage State Park is a massive complex of five golf courses and is renowned for its difficult Black Course, which hosted the U.S. Open in 2002 and 2009.
The McLaughlin was a memorable event for Harvard in 2009. Last fall, the team set the program record for its best 3-round total and Greg Shuman '10 was the individual champion.
When the men arrived Thursday morning for the practice round, they found the course in great shape with firm and fast greens. However, that evening the area was hit by a strong storm which soaked the course overnight. The soggy conditions caused the course to play differently than it did in the practice round. Despite the new conditions, the team started out their tournament with an excellent round of five-over-par 285. Theodore (Theo) Lederhausen '14 led the team individually with a 1-under-par 69. Theo's strong play was backed by a 70 by Mark Pollak '12, 71 by Seiji Liu '14, 75 by Antonio Grillo '12 and 76 by Connor Wentzell '12. The team total was good for a 7th place, but only seven strokes out of the lead. Temple and Villanova Universities led the field with rounds of 278.
In the afternoon the team continued their solid play from the morning with a round of 284. Individually, Grillo bounced back from his morning round to lead the team with a 68. Pollak, Lederhausen, and Liu contributed with 71, 72 and 73 respectively. Wentzell followed with a 75. The scores were good enough to advance the team one place into 6th place on the tight leader board. Princeton, led by a 65 by Chase Lovett-Woodsum, fired a tremendous round of 272 to take the lead.
The team returned to the course Saturday morning knowing that it would take an excellent performance to place them in contention for the title. Unfortunately, the Crimson was unable to capitalize on the calm, sunny conditions and finished the tournament with a round of 287. Grillo continued his solid play with a round of 71. His performance was followed by Pollak (72), Lederhausen (72), Liu (72) and Wentzell (78). The team's total of 856 placed them in 7th place in the 15-team field. West Florida grabbed the victory by 2 strokes over Princeton with a total of 838.
The team's three-round total of 856 was 2 strokes better than last year's showing at the McLaughlin which was the prior team best for a three-round tournament.
The men return to competition October 2nd at Yale University's McDonald Cup.
Special thanks to the Pollak family for hosting the team for dinner Thursday night.
Par:
70 70 70
Yardage: 6759 6759 6759
Fin
Team
Scores
1 West
Florida, U. of 283
279 276 838
-2
2 Princeton University 287 272
281 840
E
3 Villanova University 279 283
283 845
+5
4 Sacred Heart Univ. 280
280 286 846
+6
5
IUPUI
282 285 283 850
+10
6 Johnson & Wales U-FL 296
280 278 854 +14 T
7 Harvard
University 285
284 287 856 +16 T
7 St. John's Univ.
286 286 284 856
+16
9 St. Thomas Aquinas 284
289 289 862 +22
10 Temple University
278 300 288 866
+26
11 Rutgers University
289 291 287 867
+27
12 Dartmouth College
291 290 287 868 +28
T 13 Iona
College
290 289 290 869 +29
T 13 Loyola Univ-Maryland 294
289 286 869 +29
15 Hofstra University
313 301 306 920
+80
Fin Name School Scores
T 23 Mark
Pollak
Harvard 70
71 72 213 +3
T 23 Theodore
Lederhausen Harvard
69 72 72
213 +3
29 Tony
Grillo
Harvard
75 68 71
214 +4
34 Seiji
Liu
Harvard 71 73
72 216 +6
74 Connor
Wentzell
Harvard 76
75 78 229 +19