After getting some of their confidence back at the Princeton Invitational two weeks ago, the Hoyas traveled to New Haven, Connecticut to play at the Yale Invitational this past weekend. The three-day tournament began on Friday morning at the 6,099-yard Yale Golf course. Each day, the 14 competing teams began playing the 18-holed field at 9 a.m. with a shotgun start.

The lineup for this weekend highlighted three freshmen and two seniors. The Hoyas finished 11th on the first day of the tournament, with 312 points. Freshman Lauren May, Georgetown’s top finisher in two of the three tournaments this year, ended the day again as the team’s leading scorer, tied for 11th place with a score of 73. 

Freshman Esther Park finished second for the team at 79 and tied for 48th in her inaugural season for the Hoyas. Tied with the freshman was senior Ashley Fitzgibbons, having finished the last tournament with her best performance of the fall. Senior Kate Evanko finished next at 81 strokes, followed by freshmen Dana Choi and Elena Zhang who carded an 85 and an 86.

Zheng, in her collegiate debut as an individual player, vastly improved her score on the second day of the tournament, finishing with a score of 158 and tied for 61st. May finished in the top 25 with a 148, followed by Fitzgibbons at 33rd, increasing her position in the standings by 15 spots since the previous day. Choi ended the day with 161 strokes, one stroke ahead of Evanko and Park. 

The Hoyas maintained their place on the third day, finishing the tournament 13th out of 14 teams. At a total of 923 points, Georgetown managed to fend off Hartford as the Hoyas fell short of the other teams. The May and Fitzgibbons ended the weekend tied for 34th having carded a 226. Evanko and Choi saw steady improvements in their play over the course of the three days, finishing with 238 and 239 strokes. Park tied for 69th and Zheng was close behind at 73th with 242 points. 

Despite finishing close-to-last, the team’s overall performance is very strong. May, Park, and Choi presented themselves as a strong and reliable core for the rest of their time on the team for Georgetown, consistently ranked in the top 5 for the team since the beginning of the semester. 

The course was ranked by the Golf magazine as the 71st amongst the 100 most difficult golf courses in the world. Regardless of this ranking, the conditions were ideal this past weekend for the tournament. The course lent itself to a successful tournament, having been voted as the #1 college golf course in America, the Yale Golf Course has a rich history as one of the most well-designed early American golf courses.

The Hoyas look forward to traveling to Rehobeth Beach Country Club in Delaware to compete at the Blue Hen Invitational in two weekend’s time.