Aboff wins Ivy title, but team finishes third

Aboff was the seventh women’s golfer in Tiger history to win the Ivy League individual title Sunday at the par-72 Atlantic City Country Club. She finished the tournament 11 strokes ahead of Harvard’s Emily Balmert, with a very impressive nine-under-par finish for the three-day event.

Aboff had seven birdies and no bogeys in her first round to card an Ivy-record round of seven under par and set the tone for the tournament. Aboff came back the next day and tallied an eagle on the first par-five hole of the second round to keep the momentum going and finished the round with a two-under 70. On Sunday, she turned in an even-par 72.

“Sixty-five was my lowest round ever, so that was really fun for me,” Aboff said. “My putting went really well this weekend. I had a lot of confidence on the greens, which really helped me throughout the three rounds.”

Aboff’s teammates were quick to compliment the veteran golfer on her performance.

“Susannah played phenomenally,” junior Marlowe Boukis said. “Nine under is fantastic for three rounds. She won the Ivy League championship with style.”

Sophomore Michelle Grilli just missed the top five, finishing in eighth place with a final score of plus 12. Boukis and freshman Kate Scarpetta tied for 15th at plus 17. Freshman Maggie Boberg finished in 21st, carding a plus 23 for the weekend.

As a team, the Orange and Black finished 11 strokes behind the champion Crimson and fell just one shot behind Columbia to finish in third.

“I was really proud of the way my team played this weekend. We all played really well and fought really hard,” Aboff said. “Harvard just outplayed us. They had a few great rounds, which really helped them get a hefty lead.”

On the men’s side, Princeton ended up in a tie with Cornell for fifth place. Columbia won the title by nine shots over Yale, followed by Penn and Harvard. The Tigers finished ahead of Dartmouth and Brown.

“To come away without the trophy is a real disappointment, but we will use this loss as motivation to work harder on the course and in the gym for next year,” Schechter said. “We are very competitive individuals, and it pains us to see another team lifting the trophy that should be ours. We are a much better team than we were at this point last year, but there is still a lot of work to do.”

The Quakers’ Michael Blodgett won the individual title, finishing at plus five, three shots ahead of the Bears’ Larry Haertel.

Harmeling and Schechter tied for 15th place at plus 15 for the weekend. Sophomore Juan Pablo Candela finished tied for 20th at plus 22, with an impressive first-round score of 74. Sophomore Greg Stamas tied for 28th place at plus 25, and junior Drew Maliniak rounded out the top five, taking 31st place with a plus 27 tournament finish. Maliniak is also a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.

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“The competition was better than us this weekend,” Schechter said. “Our team still believes that we are the preeminent program in the Ivy League, and if you look at our head-to-head record against other Ivy League schools, we have done pretty well.”

The course also proved to be quite difficult this weekend.

“Galloway National is a course [where] you cannot get away with poor shots,” Schechter said. “Because of the undulations of the greens and difficulty of the pins, you have to leave the ball in the right spots more so than at other courses we play.”

There is still another tournament next weekend for the men, who will travel to Virginia’s Cavalier Classic.

The team is also optimistic for next year, as it is not losing a single golfer to graduation.

“Unfortunately, we have not had success at Galloway National these past two years,” Schechter said. “Next year, the tournament will be held elsewhere, so we’ll see what happens. We will only get stronger between now and then.”