Men's golf finishes 10th at JMU Invite

Clearly, the upperclassmen of the men's golf team have their work cut out for them. No one likes to be beaten by a freshman, regardless of how self-deprecating and amiable he may be. Last weekend the returning team members were not merely beaten, but given a lesson in composed and mature golf from a rookie.

At the James Madison Invitational this past weekend, Princeton — playing its second tournament of the fall season — placed 10th out of 25 teams in a highly competitive field. The team was led by freshman David Huestis, who, making his first collegiate appearance, shot a two-over-par 144 to place 10th individually. Junior Cassidy Traub shot 147 to finish 38th, while co-captains junior Nat Hoopes and senior James Milam each shot 150 to finish in an eight-way tie for 68th position.

Highly ranked Maryland and Penn State highlighted tournament entries, but St. John's pulled out the win with a two round team total of 562 — 23 better than Princeton's 585.

"Going into the tournament, we knew it would be one of the toughest fields we would face this fall, if not the entire year," Milam said.

Even so, he dubbed the Princeton showing "respectable, but not spectacular," conceding that "only in one round did we live up to our potential."

Indeed, the Tigers suffered from a large change in their scores from the first round to the second, climbing from 289 to 296. Huestis shot a strong 68 in the first round, but faltered to a second round 76. Milam fell from 72 to 78. Junior Cassidy Traub and Hoopes proved the most consistent, shooting 74-73 and 75-75, respectively.

Huestis called his team leading effort a "bonus", explaining that his goals for the past weekend were simply to stay focused and have his scores count for the team total. It is the team total, however, that needs some improvement.

"We need to start having a couple guys break par every round to be successful," Milam said.

The two-time defending Ivy League Champions have clearly experienced success before. Fortunately for the Tigers, the Ivy League Championship is determined in the spring season, as are NCAA tournament berths, so the fall season has diminished statistical importance. Not every Tiger was willing to accept this consolation, however.

"We want to win every tournament we enter, so this weekend was a disappointment," Hoopes said.

An oft-echoed team sentiment was that they simply could not "pull it together" for the duration of the tournament, something they will try to correct over their three remaining fall tournaments.

"We need to make the strides sooner rather than later to take our team to the next level," Milam said.

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Rest assured that the upperclassmen will take their individual games to the next level hurriedly, as no one likes to be beaten, especially not by a freshman.