The men’s golf team qualified for the NCAA championship in 2009 by winning the Ivy League for the second consecutive year. The Lions won the Ivy title in dramatic fashion, overtaking Penn, which led by three strokes going into the final round, on the last hole of the tournament.
“The field that has been announced [for the NCAA tournament] is very talented,” head coach Rich Mueller said, “but we’re becoming more and more accustomed to playing with these teams in the regular season.”
The Lions’ success started in the fall, with their third-place finish at the rain-shortened Cornell Invitational. They followed up that strong performance two weeks later at the ECAC championship, where they finished in second place among 15 teams. Yale took first in the tournament, beating the Light Blue by one stroke. The Lions finished the fall season by hosting the Columbia Invitational, where they placed 11th out of 15 teams, and were again the second-place Ivy team, this time behind Penn, which finished in sixth.
The Lions began the spring slate by finishing sixth out of nine teams at the Drake Invitational. Their best showing prior to the Ivy championship was at the Princeton Invitational on April 11, where the Lions finished in fourth place out of 14 teams. They then stumbled in the Boilermaker Invitational hosted by Purdue, finishing 15th out of 18 teams in the tournament.
“We hung really well for two of three rounds at Purdue,” said Mueller, “in a top-25 field.”
The setback did not last long, however, as the Lions found their stroke early in the Ivy championship. The Lions and Quakers found themselves at +10 entering the final hole. The final two players were freshmen Scotty Williams from Penn and Brendan Doyle from Columbia. Dolye parred the hole, while Williams made a bogey and the Lions went home with the title for the second straight season.
“I honestly believe that if we follow the process as well as we did at the Ivies, we have a legitimate chance to advance to the NCAA finals,” Mueller said. “Why not?”
If the Lions do advance, they will be competing in the finals May 14-16.
COMMENTS
Comments will be moderated in accordance with our comment policy