Women's Golf Finishes Third at River Landing Classic

Looking to build on last weekend’s third place finish at the Rebel Intercollegiate, the Harvard women’s golf team took its talents to the River Landing Classic in Wallace, N.C. After playing 54 holes over a two-day stretch, the Crimson earned itself another third place finish as play wrapped up Sunday.

Heading into the final round, the Crimson found itself at the top of the leaderboard, five strokes ahead of Penn State. However, a furious comeback by No. 30 East Carolina saw the Pirates put together the only below par round by any team in the tournament at -1. By the end of the day, the Pirates had catapulted to a four-shot win over the Nittany Lions and took home the championship trophy.

Harvard got out of the gate strong, grabbing the lead by shooting a round one 291 in Saturday’s first half of play. The back end of the day was not as kind to the Crimson, however, as it was only able to muster a 25-over par 313. Sunday’s +13 301 left Harvard at +41 as a squad, seven shots behind East Carolina and three off Penn State’s pace.

On the individual end, Crimson junior Anne Cheng walked away in second place at two over par. She finished just one stroke behind William & Mary’s Alessandra Liu, the 80th ranked player in the nation.

“I think the first day especially we played very well and that put us in a good position,” Cheng said. “By round three, some of the other teams were playing exceptionally well. We’re pretty confident and we see what we need to work and focus on in practice going into Ivies in two weeks.”

Competing as an individual, sophomore Lita Guo fired a +7 223, good enough to tie for fifth with Lisa Pettersson and No. 7 F. Gustafsson Spang, both of East Carolina. Just behind her was freshman Anna Zhou, who placed eighth overall at eight over par.

Also finishing in the top 20 were senior Christine Lin and freshman Michelle Xie, both ending as part of a tie for 18th. Xie also competed as an individual for Harvard.

Rounding out the scoring team for the Crimson were senior Courtney Hooton and junior Nina Fairbairn.

“It’s really a nice problem to have deciding who will be on the scoring team on a week-by-week basis,” Harvard coach Kevin Rhoads said. “We feel like all our players could travel every week and help serve our team every week.”

Lin and Cheng were tied for the top spot at the conclusion of the first round. After 36 holes of play, Cheng held a two stroke lead over Liu before the William & Mary senior erased the deficit with a round three 71.

The invite was co-hosted by the University of North Carolina Wilmington and East Carolina. The 6,082-yard River Landing Country Club played at a par 72 for the weekend.

“The first day especially, both rounds were played in very high wind on fast and undulating greens that are different from what we practiced on over the last week,” Rhoads said. “I think that helps explain why some of the scores were relatively high overall.”

Also representing the Ancient Eight on the weekend were Penn, Columbia, and Yale. The Quakers took fifth in the field of 13. The Lions and Bulldogs walked away at seventh and 12th, respectively.

Also making appearances at the tournament were Old Dominion, Delaware, Rutgers, Richmond, and the University of Alabama Birmingham.

Next on the calendar for the Crimson is the Ivy League Championship in two weeks. Harvard will be looking for its fifth consecutive trip to NCAA Regionals.

“I think we’re heading in very prepared, our progressions are coming along where they need to be,” Rhoads said. “I’m very satisfied with this week’s performance. Obviously the women would have liked to hold onto first, but they played really well against some quality.

—Staff writer Jed Rothstein can be reached at jed.rothstein@thecrimson.com.