Vegas, baby, Vegas! The men's golf team will be testing its skill and luck not on the craps tables but on the golf course over Spring Break as the team heads west to escape Princeton's less-than-prime golfing conditions. After a scrimmage in the Vegas area and five days of practice, the Tigers will compete in the Steve Kerr Invitational in Phoenix, Ariz.
While men's head coach Will Green firmly insists that the men will be prohibited from gambling, they will certainly need all the luck they can muster as they head into the most highly competitive tournament of the year.
Hosted by the University of Denver but played in Arizona, the field will include five schools in the top 25, including top-ranked Colorado State. Princeton will also face a bevy of powerful state programs, including Iowa State, Southwest Missouri State and Nebraska. These schools have the advantage of generous scholarship programs and, more importantly, longer and warmer practice seasons.
The Tigers have only hit the links four times this spring, primarily relying on a practice schedule which has included winter weight training, an indoor putting green in Dillon and extensive use of Princeton's state-of-the-art indoor golf simulator.
In addition to the poor winter weather, the Tigers also have had to contend with the mandatory Ivy League rest period which extends from December though early February. Even so, Green is confident about the team's prospects for the spring break trip as well for the season.
"We are better prepared than a year ago," Green said. "Also, this trip will be more beneficial than trips we have taken in the past as we have as much talent as we've ever had."
While the men have dominated the Ivy League for the last few years, they struggled at last year's Ivy League championship, ultimately relinquishing their title to Yale. This year that doesn't seem to be a problem. With three tournament wins against Penn and a 25-stroke blowout of the Bulldogs in the fall, it became apparent how hard those teams were hit by graduation. The decimated Quakers and Elis should prove much easier marks for Princeton than they did last season, and no other team seems primed to step up to fill the void. The Tigers are poised to regain their position at the top of the Ivies.
The women will also head to a sunnier locale for the break as they compete in the Marshall University Lady Herd intercollegiate golf tournament in Citrus Springs, Fla. Head coach Eric Stein will head to Florida with his seven-member team for a challenging tournament of 36 holes on Monday and 18 on Tuesday. Competition in the tournament will be followed with practice at the Orange County National Golf Club for the remainder of the week.
The Tigers will have a chance to compete against Yale, last year's Ivy champ, as well as 16 other teams from the Florida area. The Tigers will face a number of top golf programs, including Florida Gulf Coast, Ball State and Western Kentucky. While Stein admits it makes for a tough field, he is quick to retort, "we are pretty talented as well."
After a strong fall season which included three tournament wins, the women have followed a very similar winter schedule to the men. This regimen included strength training, putting and simulator practice. Spurred on by their captain and last year's Ivy League women's champion, junior Avery Kiser, the women are poised for another successful season.
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