Men's Golfers Start Poorly, Finish With Superb Round

The Harvard men's golf team, playing its best round of golf in perhaps three years, finished in a respectable seventh place at the Wildcat Invitational at the University of New Hampshire this weekend.

After a dismal first round on Sunday, played in driving rains and generally sloppy conditions, Crimson golfers found themselves in tenth-place in a field of twelve, with a lackluster one-day total of 312.

As the weather in New Hampshire changed, however, so did the team's performance. The Crimson bounced back to fire a 296 Monday in beautiful weather. The outstanding round placed Harvard third for the day and moved it up to its final seventh-place position in the tournament.

The team was paced by junior Joel Radtke, who shot a 148 for the tournament, including a remarkable 72 on Monday. Radtke's team best 72 was matched on Monday by fellow junior Jun Choo, who fired an outstanding 150 for the tournament.

"We really struggled with the bumpy greens the first round," Radtke said of the team's first-round performance. "The whole team seemed to be extremely tense."

He also attributed its poor opening to the rainy weather and overall bad conditions.

The Crimson's problems disappeared with the clouds on Monday, as the squad put forth some of its best scores in recent memory.

"We just played confidently, with no fear today," Radtke said. "It was just a really, really good day for us."

Radtke summed up the teams effort by saying that the golfers would have a good chance to qualify for the ECAC championships, which will take place in a few weeks.

The Crimson will get that chance next week when they enter the ECAC qualifying meet October 4th in Metheun, MA. If all goes well at the meet, the team will participate in the Championships October 15-16 at Colgate University.