With the emergence of the cherry blossoms on the National Mall and the return of Tiger Woods to the PGA comes the start of the spring season for the Georgetown men’s and women’s golf teams, both of whom found themselves in action this past week.
The Hoya men finished in ninth place at the Lacrosse Homes, played at the Prospect Bay Country Club in Grasonville, Md. Junior Vincenzo Salina led the team in the first round, posting a 3-over 75. Senior Garrett Logan followed with a 6-over 78, and senior captain Tim Hager and freshman Brian Dorfman completed the Hoya foursome with rounds of 80 and 81, respectively.
Logan and Dorfman tore up Prospect Bay in the afternoon, firing rounds of 71 and 72. Hager improved on his shaky morning round by posting a 3-over score of 75. Senior Patrick Sherry carded Georgetown’s fourth second round score, a 6-over 78. The Hoyas’ combined day one score of 608 put them in 13th place in the team standings, behind the leaded, Kentucky State, who stood at 3-under par.
The Hoyas made up a lot of ground in the tournament’s final round, with all five players shooting rounds in the 70s. Logan and Dorfman led the pack with a pair of 2-over 74’s, followed by Salina and Sherry with a couple of 77’s. Hager posted a solid round of 79 that did not count towards the total team score.
“Hager has had a few bad breaks that have prevented him scoring as well as he is accustomed to,” men’s golf Head Coach Tommy Hunter said. “But we have a lot of confidence that Tim will be there when it counts.”
Georgetown’s strong team performance on the last day of competition bumped them up to ninth in the team standings. Kentucky State maintained their two-round lead to come out on top of the leader board at the end of the third round.
“At times we have looked good and at other times we certainly can stand improvement,” Coach Hunter said. “The good news is we have had two top-10 finishes, which means we are competing well. Our scoring is a bit inconsistent right now, but we are very confident that will come around.”
The women’s team hosted its third event of the spring, the Hoya Invitational, at its home course, The Members Club at Four Streams in Maryland. The squad was coming off two strong showings in their first two tournaments of the spring. The Hoyas topped the leaderboard at their spring opener, the NIU Snowbird Intercollegiate tournament, giving them their first team win in three years. The ladies followed it up with an 8th place finish at the First Mark Bank Intercollegiate two weeks ago.
“It’s always great to get a win,” women’s golf Head Coach Patty Post said. “We wanted to try to build off of that in our following events.”
Cool temperatures and heavy winds on day one of play made the already difficult Members Course even more of a test for the Hoyas and their competition. Senior captain Chelsea Curtis led Georgetown in the first round, posting an 8-over round of 80, putting her into 11th place in the individual standings. Curtis was followed by a trio of Hoya underclassmen-freshman Eunae Jo fired a round of 83 and fellow freshman Joan Dulieu and sophomore Robyn English posted a pair of 86’s.
The winds continued into the afternoon during the ladies’ second round of the event. Despite the tricky conditions, Curtis improved on her morning round with a second score of 5-over 77 to lead the Hoyas. Senior Carly Hunt followed with an 80, and English and Jo rounded out the team score for Georgetown with second rounds of 82 and 84, respectively. Georgetown’s combined two-round score of 608 left the squad in seventh place at the end of day one, well back from the pacesetters, Nova Southeastern University.
“We definitely would have had a home-course advantage,” Post said. “But the suspect weather conditions on day one took that away, and we had some higher scores that we hadn’t seen this season.”
The senior duo of Curtis and Hunt came out firing during the final round of competition, posting scores of 75 and 74, respectively. The Hoya underclassmen also posted their best rounds of the tournament on the final day, with Jo firing a 79 and Dulieu carding an 80. “Having two strong freshmen is great for the future,” Post said. “They’ve played in a lot of events this year and have performed well.” The Hoyas’ strong performance boosted the team up to fifth place in the final team standings, behind winner Nova Southeastern and the runner-up, Princeton.
The Hoya men next head to North Carolina for the East Carolina Invitational on April 4 and the women travel to Florida to compete in the Gator Invitational on April 6.
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