Golf team finishes season in exciting style

Capping off a surprising year, junior golfer Brad Hawes had a remarkable 80 yard eagle on the 18th hole at the New England Championships on Tuesday, which was the highlight of the two day tournament for the Jumbos. Amongst talented competition from all three collegiate divisions, the Tufts squad emerged with a fifth place finish out of the Div. III teams and a 15th place finish overall out of 47 teams at the Championships.

Senior co-captain Elliot Barr led the team with a pair of 78s and a 31st place overall finish out of 250 golfers. Hawes finished two strokes behind Barr and placed 40th.

Despite, Barr leading the team, Hawes' shot was the talk of the Jumbos' players. From the rough, on the 18th hole, Hawes made a seemingly impossible shot.

"Brad Hawes, 80 yards out and sunk it for an eagle. In my 14 years of golf, it was the most exciting moment, screaming that eagle in," coach Sheldon said.

"It looked good, it sucked back and rolled gently into the hole," senior co-captain Dan Kramer said.

Outside of Hawes' shot, however, Tufts, like the other teams in the tournament, had trouble adjusting to the course and windy conditions and thus, had about an average showing score-wise.

"I think it was a tough course. The tees were pushed way back, the holes were in tricky spots," Sheldon said about the Port/Starboard Captains' Course in Brewster, Massachusetts.

Nevertheless, at least place-wise, the team was pleased with how it performed at the Championships.

"The course was demanding, windy, the scores were very high... We beat a lot of Division one, two, and three teams though. We were pretty happy about that," Kramer said.

Although the team placed better than it has in quite a few years, it still wished for a higher overall finish, and a better shot at qualifying for nationals.

"After the first day we were one place higher [overall]... We've played better," Sheldon said. "It would be a long shot for nationals. We got beat by five Division three schools."

Kramer echoed Sheldon's sentiments. "We finished pretty high and that was good. We were kind of disappointed. We really could have been three or four shots higher, which could have brought us to ninth place," Kramer said. "We just thought we could have done better."

In addition to the team's success at the New England Championships, three members of the Tufts squad recently won NESCAC conference awards. Sheldon won the NESCAC coach of the year, Elliot Barr was named a member of the NESCAC Second Team, and freshman Dan Weinbeck won the NESCAC Rookie-of-the-Year.

"It [the award] was a long time coming. He's one of the most genuinely nice, supportive, and funny people I've met both in and out of sports," Kramer said about Sheldon winning the award. "He was a big part of our success."

Although, the team experienced much success this season, next year could be quite challenging as three top seniors, Kramer, Barr and Arun Lamba will be lost to graduation. The three seniors have a combined total of ten varsity seasons under their belts.

But, Sheldon is excited about next year and expects some of his younger players to step up.

"We're looking forward to it," Sheldon said.