Women's Golf Places 15th at Stanford Intercollegiate

In a competitive field at the Stanford Intercollegiate tournament in Stanford, Calif., Harvard women’s golf used a strong last day to finish 15th out of a field of 17 teams. Led by sophomore Anne Cheng’s solid weekend showing, the Crimson shot 909 over the three-day event, good for 43-over-par overall.

“Some of us weren’t as sharp as we wanted to be,” junior Christine Lin said. “But we believed in ourselves and knew that if we kept doing what we needed to, it would help us get where we needed to be.”

Cheng topped the board for the team with an overall score of four-over-par, which put her in 40th place individually. On the first day, she paced Harvard with an even-par 71, which was the lowest single-round mark of the weekend.

“I stuck a lot of my shots within five feet of the pin,” Cheng said. “That helped me a lot with making pars and making birdies.”

Yet a top finish at this tournament required more than Cheng could do this time. The Stanford Intercollegiate annually hosts one of the most competitive fields of the sport. This year was no exception as the tournament, drew eight teams from last year’s top 25.

Two of these top teams tied for first. Stanford matched USC, last year’s champion, with a three-day total of 15-under-par. UCLA’s Bronte Law won the event individually with an overall score of eight-under-par that included a first round low of 65, the best opening 18 tally of any of the women.

“This was probably the strongest field in the tournament other than the NCAA championship finals,” Cheng said.

In addition to Cheng’s performance, senior Brenna Nelsen shot 10-over-par for the weekend, including a low of 73 on the first day. Lin recorded the Crimson’s third-lowest score at 226 over the three days. Junior Courtney Hooton and captain Tiffany Lim rounded out the squad with overall scores of 17-over-par and 29-over-par, respectively.

“We played better as the weekend went by,” Lin said. “We did a good job keeping our heads high—just persevering and moving forward no matter what. I think we hung in there as a team.”

But as the only Ivy League member participating, the Harvard women took some time to acclimate—after the first round, the Crimson was tied for last.

“The first day, a few of us were kind of out of our comfort zone, seeing these great players and being in a field that we usually don’t compete with,” Lin said. “We expected the discomfort, and we knew that we were going to be in a tough field. We couldn’t let that bother us or our games.”

More play led to marked improvement on the course. In the third round, all Harvard players shot as well or better than they had in the previous round. Hooten dropped three strokes, and Lin and Nelsen both dropped two strokes of their own, to propel Harvard past Oregon State.

“I focused on thinking about my own game and hitting each shot one at a time,” Lin said. “That’s the way we play.”

The Crimson could hardly have asked for better weather conditions. Throughout the weekend, temperatures hovered in the sixties and seventies, and the wind speed remained low.

Harvard’s performance followed impressive showings at the Yale and Penn State invites, where the Crimson earned second out of 16 and third of 14 teams, respectively. However, the team will not have a chance to apply the lessons from the weekend until the spring, as the Stanford Intercollegiate is the last scheduled event of the fall.

“We’ll be hitting indoors and going to driving ranges,” Cheng said. “We’ll try to keep our game sharp.”