Women's Golf Wins Brown Invitational

The elements were not ideal for golf this weekend in Providence, R.I. Steady winds of roughly 30 mph made for difficult scoring conditions at Metacoment Country Club.

But the weather did not deter the Harvard women’s golf team, as the Crimson won the Brown BEAR Invitational with an overall score of 628, 20 shots ahead of second-place Boston University.

“I think the team played amazing,” captain Bonnie Hu said. “The conditions were really tough, the winds got up to 40 mph, and playing with that amount of wind is not the easiest thing to do. People did a really good job focusing on the things that they could control and not letting things like the wind affect them.”

Crimson junior Tiffany Lim led the way for Harvard and took home the individual title. Lim, who had one other individual victory earlier this season at the Princeton Invitational, posted a two-over-par 73 on Sunday to take the overnight lead. The junior shot 79 on Monday for a four-shot victory.

“The team did really well today controlling emotions, because conditions were really tough,” Lim said. “The winds were 30-40 miles per hour, and the greens were firm. It was a day that we could have easily gotten frustrated, but we were able to pull it together and make a good run.”

Three other Harvard players finished in the top 10, and all finished in the top 20.

Playing as an individual, junior Brenna Nelsen finished in a tie for second place with a two-day total of 156. Nelsen, a Crimson sports executive, fired a 77 on Sunday followed by a final-round 79.

Sophomore Courtney Hooton shot a combined 158 through the two days of play, landing her tied for fourth with Dartmouth’s Jane Lee and BU’s Kristyna Pavlickova. Pavlickova carded the lowest score of Monday’s round, shooting a five-over-par 76.

Sophomore Christine Lin and freshman Anne Cheng each ended the tournament tied for seventh at 160. Lin shaved five shots off her Sunday score with a team-best 77 on Monday.

First-year Nina Fairbairn posted rounds of 81 and 82 for the Crimson to finish in a tie for 13th place.

After the first round, the Crimson found itself at the top of the leaderboard with an overall 310 through the first 18 holes of the tournament. While the winds continued to pick up in Monday’s final round, the team found success during the final day of play, carding a 318, the lowest team score on the day.

“I think that the common theme throughout this season has been focus,” Hu said. “Whenever we play or practice, we really go through it as a process and that comes in especially handy when you are playing in really tough conditions.”

“I think a lot of [our success comes from] preparation,” Lim said. “We have put in a lot of work since spring break, and we came into this [tournament] knowing whatever happened out on the field, we just had to put our best game forward given what the conditions were. We’ve been focusing on the process on the course, which really helped us.”

Rounding out play for the Crimson was Hu, who also competed as an individual for Harvard. The senior finished tied for nineteenth with an overall score of 166, carding rounds of 81 and 85 for the tournament.

The Brown Invitational was the team’s last competition before Ivy Championships on April 25.

“Going into Ivies I think we are feeling pretty confident as a team,” Hu said. “We always feel pretty confident, because we are really good at doing us.”

—Staff writer Ariel Smolik-Valles can be reached at asmolikvalles@college.harvard.edu.