Harvard Men's Golf Ties for 5th at Yale's MacDonald Cup
By Michael Lai '14
This week, the Harvard Men's Golf Team traveled to New Haven, Connecticut to compete in the annual MacDonald Cup hosted by Ivy League rival Yale. The Yale University Golf Course is a par 70, 6749-yard track designed in 1924 by golf course architect, player, and USGA co-founder Charles Blair McDonald. Because of its blind tee shots, penal bunkers, and massive, sloping greens, the course always proves to be a strong test. This week, heavy rains dramatically altered course conditions, flooding the fairways and softening the greens. In fact, due to torrential rains on Saturday morning, the tournament was shortened from 54 holes to 36 holes.
On Day 1, after a 90-minute rain delay, the Crimson marched onto the rain-soaked course in full rain gear to kick off the 9:30 a.m. shotgun start. With parts of the course flooded, lift clean and place was in effect, setting up prime scoring conditions for attacking pins. Unfortunately, the team failed to take advantage of the soft greens, posting a mediocre 294 to finish tied for 6th place out of 14 teams, 14 shots behind leader Yale.
Theo Lederhausen '14 and Mark Pollak '12 led the squad with a pair of 2-over par 72's. Captain Tony Grillo '12 and Seiji Liu '14 rounded out the counting scores with 5 over par 75's, while Kevin McCarthy '14 posted a 76. Michael Lai '14, playing as an individual, shot 78.
Ominous rain clouds cleared early morning Sunday, letting through the first rays of sun and spots of blue sky during the weekend. While the weather was stellar for the entire second round, the course was still soaked from overnight rains, with greens proving to be significantly slower than Saturday. When all was said and done, the Crimson posted a 5-stroke improvement over round one with a 289 to finish at 583 and move up the leader board to fifth, beating Ivy League rivals Columbia and Penn, but falling well short of tournament winner Yale.
Once again, Lederhausen and Pollak led the squad with matching one-over par 71's, both finishing solidly in the top ten. Grillo followed up his first round 75 with a 73, highlighted by a hole in one on the par 3 5th with a flush 7-iron from 150 yards. Despite early round putting woes, Liu buckled down and finished his last 6 holes 2 under par to shoot 74. McCarthy struggled with his putter Sunday, finishing at 8 over par 78, while individual Lai improved on his score Saturday, posting 71.
When asked to comment on his second ace in 2 weeks after the round, Grillo put quite simply: "I told it to 'be good, and it was good." Unfortunately, the Crimson's tournament finish at Yale wasn't so good. Looking to improve on some disappointing scores this week, the team will put in some hard work in the practice area before heading to Philadelphia next week, looking to bring home their first win of the season at the Big 5 Invitational.
Par: 70 Yardage: 6749
Fin Team Scores
1 Yale University 280 285 565 +5
2 Princeton University 286 284 570 +10
3 Dartmouth College 288 285 573 +13
4 St. Edward's U. 294 286 580 +20
5 Sacred Heart Univ. 290 293 583 +23
Harvard University 294 289 583 +23
7 Rhode Island, U. of 296 288 584 +24
8 Columbia University 296 291 587 +27
Colgate University 294 293 587 +27
10 Temple University 296 294 590 +30
11 Central Connecticut 299 296 595 +35
Pennsylvania, U. of 292 303 595 +35
13 Fordham University 302 296 598 +38
14 YALE II 306 305 611 +51
Fin Name School Scores
9 MarkPollak Harvard 72 71 143 +3
9 TheodoreLederhausen Harvard 72 71 143 +3
29 Tony Grillo Harvard 75 73 148 +8
37 Seiji Liu Harvard 75 74 149 +9
37 Michael Lai Harvard 78 71 149 +9
65 Kevin McCarthy Harvard 76 78 154 +14
