Men's Golf Sees Scrappy Start to the Fall Season

The Harvard men’s golf team took a weekend trip to Lake Placid, NY to compete in the Columbia Autumn Invitational, hosted by Columbia University on Sunday afternoon. The tournament was fought on the links course at Lake Placid Club. During its second tournament of the fall season, the team finished with a score of 852, matching the par for the course. A score of par landed the team in fourth place out of the 11 teams present, and third among the five Ivy League teams in attendance.

The team entered this tournament coming off of a weekend of rest following its fifth place finish at the Doc Gimmler Tournament. In this year’s tournament, the Crimson looked to fill the gaps left by three departing seniors who competed in the 2023 Doc Gimmler Tournament. In 2023, seniors Adam Xiao (+2) and Kevin Sze (+2) both finished top-30, while departing team captain and First Team All-Ivy League golfer Brian Ma (-5) finished in the top five.

The Doc Gimmler tournament, hosted at Bethpage Black, which will serve as the host course of the prestigious 2025 Ryder Cup, featured top-15 finishes from its three freshman players, along with sophomore Jonathan Hartono, who’s impressive 66, which is four under par for this particular course, earned him the best individual round of the tournament. Coming off strong individual performances, the team looked to make a strong showing in Lake Placid.

The first tournament commenced with an 8:45am shotgun start on Saturday, Despite the initially chilly weather, the Crimson saw itself hit the links with a fire to compete for glory. Freshman Barry Zhang (-4), senior Jeff Fang (-1) and sophomore Jonathan Hartono (-1) all finished the first round below par, putting the team (-4) in second place behind Columbia (-6). Zhang’s performance, particularly his five birdies and four pars on the back nine, left him tied for third place after the first round.

Although the day warmed up, with the temperatures at the second tee time about 20°F higher than the first tee time, the Crimson was unable to maintain its hot streak, and keep its momentum rising. Of the five players competing this past weekend, only William Ma (-2) went below par, with the team finishing with a score one over par in the second round. The other three contributing scores in this round stood at one-over par, including Ieuan Jones (+1), who rebounded from a three over par first round.

Unable to bounce back from the second Saturday round, the Crimson found itself trailing behind its Ancient Eight opponents on Sunday, posting a similarly lackluster set of results. The four contributing scores came from senior captain Fang (-3), freshmen Zhang (E) and Ma (+1), and Hartono (+3). These four scores tallied to an even par for the Crimson on the third day of the Columbia Fall Invite, which was not enough to eek out a podium finish despite the promising first round results.

Harvard finished the tournament fourth of 11 total teams, with Columbia successfully defending its home turf against the visiting foes, and claiming the first place trophy. Fellow Ivy League team Dartmouth finished the tournament in second place, leaving the Crimson a lot to chase after this week before entering its next bout of competition this weekend.. While the upper-half finish is impressive, the Crimson’s overall performance was carried by its strong first-round performance, which landed the team in second place of the 11 teams before falling in rounds two and three.

The Crimson had four golfers finish in the top-30: Zhang (-3) finished T-6, Fang (E) finished T-13, Ma (+2) finished 17, and Hartono (+4) finished T-22. Jones (+11) and Saavedra-Devila (+18) finished T-42 and T-56 of the 66 total golfers who competed at Lake Placid.

“36 hole days in college golf are very long, and to play our best we always commit to stay level-headed through the round. Despite not having our best stuff Sunday, it was good to see a strong stretch of golf on Saturday, which gives us great momentum going into the Hamptons Intercollegiate this coming week,”Saavedra-Devila said.

The Crimson will look to put together its individual pieces to find a team result this weekend, and to repeat its strong round one performance through all three rounds at the Hamptons Intercollegiate, hosted by Loyola University at The Maidstone Club. The first round will be played on Monday, and competition will carry over onto Tuesday to determine victor of the tournament.

—Staff writer Jack Anderson can be reached at jack.anderson@thecrimson.com

—Staff writer Hugo Nunez can be reached at hugo.nunez@thecrimson.com