Start of Season Brings Tough Opponent

Before Thursday’s match, the Harvard women’s golf team hadn’t played competitively since the middle of October.

To make matters worse, the Crimson had to shake off the rust while facing Berkeley, ranked the fourth best team in the nation by Golfweek.

As could be expected, the Bears soundly defeated Harvard, 289-315, at the par-72 Ruby Hill Golf Club in Pleasanton, Calif.

“We’re definitely a little bit rusty, and today was a good test to see where we stand and know what we need to work on,” captain Mia Kabasakalis said. “It was a good opener.”

As has become the norm, freshman Bonnie Hu led the way for the Crimson. With a one-under 71, the freshman phenom, named one of Golfweek’s 20 “Freshmen to Watch” at the beginning of the fall season, delivered her second-best performance of the year.

What’s more, Hu tied Cal player Joanne Lee for the low score of the day.

“Bonnie played phenomenally well,” Kabasakalis said. “She has shown no signs of getting over the winter break and getting back into the swing of things…She’s an incredibly talented player.”

The five-month break didn’t treat the other players on the team quite as kindly.

Junior Jane Lee came in second for Harvard with an 80, followed by Kabasakalis and junior Christine Cho, who shot an 81 and an 83, respectively.

All three of these scores were well above 74, the Bears’ worst score that counted.

“In the end, golf is just so dependent on the number of reps you are getting if you’re going to be scoring well,” Harvard coach Kevin Rhoads said. “Your form can look good, [and] you can basically be hitting good shots, but the difference between okay shots that don’t turn out very [well] and contribute to a bad score versus good shots that contribute to a good score…[is a] high numbers of reps.”

The team practiced indoors during the winter offseason and this week played a variety of courses in the Monterey area. But to Rhoads, none of that offers true preparation for actual matches.

“Your body feels different when you haven’t been competing for a while,” Rhoads said. “You see it with Tiger Woods right now: he’s working through swing stuff so that each time he’s playing, he’s hitting it well on the range and he’s hitting it well in practice rounds. But when he gets to competitions, [the ball] is not always doing exactly what he wants it to."

“So, in a strange way, we were Tiger-esque [Thursday].” Rhoads added.

Other factors, in addition to Harvard’s long break, worked against the Crimson on Thursday. To start, Harvard had never played Ruby Hill before, a course familiar to the opponent.

And the greens also gave the Crimson trouble. After playing on punched greens the day before, Ruby Hills’ greens were fast and at times unforgiving.

In particular, Cho, who averaged +5 during the fall season, perhaps felt the effect of playing on the new course more than the rest of her teammates.

“I watched [Cho] hit a couple shots where she thought she’d hit good shots, and they turned out badly or in a hazard [because she didn’t know the course],” Rhoads said.

Usually a strong putter, Cho also failed to master the greens, uncharacteristically missing putts within six feet.

Of course, even if the Harvard players had shot strong scores, beating Berkeley would’ve been a challenge. As a team, the Bears shot just +9, not too far from even par.

Despite the easy victory for Cal, Rhoads stood by his decision to meet up with such a formidable foe so early in the season.

“It’s probably a little hard on confidence to [play them] this early in the season,” Rhoads said. “But I also look at it as a great motivator…at the risk of knocking down our confidence, it also shows us [that we need to] keep on working and keep on striving for the direction that [Cal] is in.”

Even with the loss, the team feels like it’s close to breaking through.

“We’ve gotten some good work done this weekend, and next weekend in Florida, we’ll do the same,” Kabasakalis said. “Everyone worked really hard over the winter, and it might not be quite showing itself yet, but I think it will.”