Pictured: Katie Sylvan
By Kevin Rhoads
April 23-25 saw Harvard traveling to Springfield, New Jersey for
the Ivy Championship at historic Baltusrol Golf Club. Site of
16 major amateur and professional Majors, Baltusrol boasts two
championship courses designed by famed architect A.W.
Tillinghast– both of which have been used to host
majors. For this week, both the Ivy Women's and
Men's Championships were held at Baltusrol, with the women
playing the Upper Course and the men playing on the Lower
Course. The Upper Course is characterized by very fast,
sloping greens, deep bunkers, and gorgeous vistas. Set on the
side of a hill, the primary slope is very influential in
challenging the players to keep their drives in the fairway and
their balls below the pins on the greens.
The women were really looking forward to punctuating the success
of their regular season with a record third-straight Ivy
Championship. Though they knew this was a possibility, they
prepared with the same level of intensity while trying not to
overdo things. Unfortunately, from round 1 it was evident
that the Harvard women were in for an uncharacteristic week.
In the first round, Harvard got off to a rough start, with the
exception of Katie Sylvan ('13, San Diego, Calif.).
Sylvan almost single-handedly kept Harvard in the tournament in
round 1. She fired an even-par 72 to lead the field, and to
help Harvard to a 319 total – 5 shots behind Penn. She
had five birdies on her card on the very challenging course –
the most of any player in the field in any round. Christine
Cho ('12, La Crescenta, Calif.) also hung in well, shooting
79. Claire Sheldon ('10, Milton, Mass.), and Sarah
Harvey ('10, Forest, Va.) shot 84's while Mia
Kabasakalis ('11, Alameda, Calif.) shot 85. This left
them at 5 shots behind Penn. The severe greens had sped up
between the practice round and the first round, and the Crimson
didn't do a good enough job adjusting to the speeds.
Due to the large size of the greens, when greens were missed, they
either left long bunker shots, or difficult short-sided bunker
shots or pitches. The team struggled to get the ball close to
the hole, and 2-putting long putts was no easy task. Harvard
had a challenge on their hands
Round two saw Harvard optimistic about catching and passing Penn
to overtake first place. Harvard adjusted to the difficulty
of the golf course, and improved to 311 for their second-day team
total. Sheldon came back nicely with a solidly-played round
of 75. Cho hit the ball better and continued her steady play,
shooting 76, while Kabasakalis improved to 77. Sylvan
couldn't quite continue her first round magic, with a tough
finish giving her an 82, while Harvey shot 83. Unfortunately,
Penn kept up their fearless play, and improved t! o 308, leaving
Harvard 8 shots behind entering day 3. This was by no means
an insurmountable margin, but it was going to require a strong
final day from the Crimson – which is a normal characteristic
of the team.
Day 3 saw the brilliant weather of the first two days give way
to temperatures between 45-50 and raining. The variable
conditions were not great to play in, but are the kind of
conditions in which shots can sometimes be made up.
Unfortunately, early momentum gave way to struggles.
Through 9 holes Harvard had only made up 1 shot, and they needed to
make a push if they were going to have a chance of catching
Penn. Unfortunately, the course didn't want to get
pushed around, and the ladies were not sharp enough to mount a
charge. Sylvan shot 77 to lead the Crimson. Cho shot
80, and Sheldon 82. Kabasakalis and Harvey finished with 85
and 87 respectively. In the end, pushing for a few extra
birdies probably made everyone's score go up more than it
should have, which aided in Yale passing Harvard to go into second
place by three shots. Harvard shot 324, while
Yale shot 309 and Penn 307.
Penn's total was 929 to Harvard's 954. They
played beautifully all week, and deserved to be champions.
Never having finished higher than fifth in an Ivy Championship, and
with only one tournament win in their regular season, this was a
huge example of playing without expectations and peaking at the
correct time. In the end, the awards ceremony summed up the
tournament well. Penn was crowned Ivy League Champion –
an award they deserved given their great performance at
Baltusrol. But Christine Cho was named Ivy League Player of
the Year, and Katie Sylvan was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year,
based on the strength of the entire season. Sylvan earned
First Team All Ivy while Cho and Sheldon earned Second Team All
Ivy. It was nice recognition for them, though it only
slightly lessened the sting of not achieving their team goal of
winning another Ivy Championship. Harvard had won every tournament
but two that they played all year, but had an off-week at an
important juncture. The Crimson are bitterly disappointed
with their result at a Championship that they badly wanted to
win. However, as time sinks in they will look at the season
as a whole, and be extremely proud of their body of
work.
Now the team can only wait as the NCAA selection committee
convenes today to decide on the field for NCAA Regionals.
There is an outside chance that the Crimson will receive an
at-large bid to NCAA Regionals, based on the strength of their
regular season and their accompanying national ranking. An
at-large bid would be necessary this year, due to the fact that
they did not earn the automatic bid extended to the winner of the
League Championship tournament. The announcement will be made at
4pm EST today, so fingers will be crossed until then.
Course:Baltusrol Golf Club: Upper Course - Ivy
Championship Par 72 - 6101 yards
Pennsylvania,
Univ
+65F 314
308 307
929
Yale
University
+87 328
314 309
951
Harvard
University
+90 319
311 324
954
Princeton
University
+113 325
325 327
977
Brown
University
+132 332
325 339
996
Columbia
University
+134 325
342 331
998
Dartmouth
University
+157 337
339 345
1021
T4 Katie
Sylvan (4) 72 82 77 231
8 Christine
Cho (1) 79 76 80 235
10 Claire
Sheldon (2) 84 75 82 241
T17 Mia
Kabasakalis (3) 85 78 85 248
24 Sarah
Harvey (5) 84 83 87 254
