Snow brings a title for men's golf; women take fifth at Boston College

The Inuit language is popularly believed to have 20 different words for snow, each signifying a different variation. But in the world of golf, snow means only one thing — can't play.

The golf teams, however, would give that word two more meanings after this weekend's events. For the men at the Navy Spring Invitational, this weekend's storm was a taxidermist, preserving a trophy day of low scores for a victory.

For the women's team, however, the storm froze Saturday's lackluster scores so that they could not be redeemed.

The men's golf team won the Navy Spring Invitational, shooting 299, but the women placed fifth, shooting 346 behind first place Yale's 325 at the Boston College Invitational. Each competition saw its second day eliminated due to the inclement weather, turning first-day scores into final scores.

Leading the men was freshman Nat Hoopes, who placed third at the competition with a 73. One shot behind him, junior Peter McWhorter tied for fourth place, and both senior captain Judd Pritchard and freshman Cassidy Traub shot 76.

High hopes

"We're all going to have a lot of confidence after this week," Hoopes said. "[This performance] gives us confidence going into the [Ivy League] tournament. I think all of us have been shooting for [the Ivy League title] all year."

Indeed, the Tigers will go to Jackson, N.J., next weekend for the Ivy Championship, which figures to be a showdown between Princeton, Yale and Penn. While the Tigers have battled the Quakers several times already this year — sometimes falling to them, and sometimes, like in this weekend's tournament, topping them — they have not yet seen the Elis. The Tigers do know, however, that Yale has had a very successful season thus far, and, while Princeton was dominating the Navy Spring Invitational with an 11-stroke lead over Penn, Yale was winning another tournament.

With four out of the travelling five breaking 80 this weekend, Princeton has shown itself to be a deep team.

"All of the players that we have are capable of shooting low scores," men's head coach Will Green said. "I feel very good about the position our team is in right now."

The women's team, on the other hand, did not perform as well on its first day and was deprived of the last 18 holes to subtract from its surplus of shots.

While senior captain Meagan Smith had the low score for the team with an 84, it was actually sophomore Momoke Sone who shot the lowest of all the Tigers with an 83. Her score did not count toward the team's total, however, since she entered the tournament as an individual.

Detracting from the Tigers' performance were the windy weather conditions. Ironically, the past success of the team also contributed to the lackluster play. When players started to shoot worse than usual, they figured their scores would not count towards the team total, since normally the Tigers will have two or three golfers shooting below 80 and others not far behind.

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"I don't think any of us were very impressed with the way we played this weekend," freshman Vanessa Redman said. "I was shooting a high score, and I didn't think I'd be counting for our group. We didn't stay with it. [It was] a wakeup call for next weekend."

The women will likewise be competing in the Ivy League tournament this weekend in Bethpage, N.Y. Also like the men, the women will have to overcome Yale to claim the title. Unlike the men, however, the women have faced the Elis at every tournament this spring — and until this weekend had dominated them every time.