The golf team suffered a major setback this weekend by placing fifth out of 10 teams at the 2007 NESCAC Championship, held at the Skenandoa Golf Club in Clinton, N.Y. Unfortunately for the Jumbos, only the top four finishers go on to the spring playoff tournament, the winner of which receives a bid to Div. III Nationals.
Using the top four scores from the five-man roster, Tufts shot a collective 317 on Saturday, netting the team its fifth-place position on the leaderboard.
Senior tri-captain Dave Hunt continued his excellent play, firing a first-round 74 and a final-round 79. His two-day tally of 153 landed him in a tie for ninth place overall in the individual standings.
Senior Pat Sullivan also had a solid performance, shooting a 79 on the first day and a 76 on the second for a total of 155, while junior Phil Haslett also posted two solid scores, carding 79 on both Saturday and Sunday. Mike O'Neil, the third senior on the squad, shot an 85 on Saturday, but shaved 10 strokes for a 75 on the tournament's second day. Freshman Luke Heffernan rounded out the group, shooting 88 and 76 for a total of 164.
"I think I speak for Mike and Pat as well as myself when I say that we are extremely disappointed with the results," Hunt said. "Of course, as a senior, it hurts to lose that last opportunity. Now we just have to look ahead rather than dwelling in the past."
The Jumbos were clicking all over the course Sunday, shooting a cumulative 306 to best their initial round by 11 strokes. However, the other squads also stepped up their games, and Tufts was not able to climb out of fifth place, finishing seven strokes behind host Hamilton for the last spot to gain the right to play in the championship round in April.
Trinity won the championship with a final score of 606, 13 strokes better than runner-up Middlebury. The individual medalist was sophomore Josh Grossman of Trinity, who fired a two-day total of 146, including an even-par 72 in Sunday's final round.
Despite their failure to finish out the Sunday comeback, the Jumbos enjoyed a very open course at Skenandoa, which led to improved scores from the last two tournaments.
"The course was set up real nice," Sullivan said. "It was stretch free, so we were able to hit our drivers on a lot of holes."
"The course was pretty open," added Hunt, the best Tufts finisher in either of the two rounds. "You could put the ball all over the map and still have a chance to par the hole."
Despite the team's solid long game, the greens at Skenandoa gave the Jumbos some problems. The Jumbos' short-game struggles were most apparent on the first day, at the end of which they were eight shots back in the race for the coveted fourth spot.
"[The holes] were real tricky," Hunt said. "They played quick and also had a lot of undulations."
Despite the big implications of the weekend, Tufts went in confident. The team had been finding its stride at recent tournaments at Nichols College and Williams. Though a disappointing performance on the first day doomed their chances, the Jumbos played their best golf of the season on Sunday.
"I didn't think we let the pressure get to us," Hunt said. "We knew it was the biggest tournament of the year going in, and we prepared accordingly. We were definitely very confident and excited going in."
The Jumbos backed up their confidence with solid play on Sunday, but they fell just short of their ultimate goal of attaining a spot in the NESCAC playoffs. The Tufts golfers were disheartened by the end results, but satisfied with their play and optimistic for the future.
"We did our best, and win or lose we are trying to have fun as a squad, and I think we accomplished that goal," Sullivan said. "Of course we're disappointed, but the season isn't over. We're going to try to make some noise in the next two tournaments and put ourselves on the map."
