Golf Tees Off After Strong Fall Season and Training

The Columbia men’s and women’s golf teams have recently returned from their separate training trips and are ready to start their spring season. The women went to Hawaii where they competed in the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational in Kaneohe, finishing eighth out of 16 teams. The men’s team traveled to California, where it competed in two tournaments, the Diablo Grande at Drake University and the Western Intercollegiate in Santa Cruz.

The women completed their fall season strongly, placing second in two major tournaments. Losing only to Princeton, the Lions are expected to do very well this spring in conference play. They will be competing at the Hoya Invitational this weekend in Beallsville, Maryland and will be looking to some of their strongest players to score points. Junior Sara Ovadia and sophomore Stevy Loy proved themselves valuable members of the team during the fall season when they finished second and fifth, respectively, at the Princeton Invitational last fall. Loy finished this fall with no handicap and won the Spider Invitational, while Ovadia finished strong with an +8.

This weekend the tournament will be hosted by Georgetown, a team with which the Lions are usually neck and neck. The Hoyas finished only seven points behind the Light Blue at the Princeton Invitational, giving the Lions a good gauge for how well they will do this season.

Over on the men’s side, the Lions did not have as strong a season as the women did, but they are nonetheless tough Ivy competitors. This weekend, Columbia will be competing at the Towson Invitational in Grasonville, Maryland, an event at which they did fairly well last year, finishing fifth out of 21 teams. The recent Diablo Grande tournament was a good indicator for the Lions, with senior Gus Quartararo placing the highest for the Light Blue at ninth place with a score of 229. The Light Blue will be relying on him as well as newcomers Justin Lee, Austin Quinten, and Clark Granum to bring Columbia to the top. There will be an array of teams competing this weekend in Grasonville, with schools such as Navy, Cornell and Towson sending players. This will be the last opportunity for the Lions to engage in non-conference play since the spring Princeton Invitational and the Ivy League Championship are next month.

The women will compete Monday, March 31 and Tuesday, April 1, while the men are playing this Friday and Saturday.