Opening round pace not sustained

Freshman Evan Harmeling was one of the brightest spots for the team this weekend, finishing a solid two-under par with a 69 in round one and a 73 on the second day on the par-72 Birdwood Country Club golf course.

“I was pretty sharp this weekend, and I didn’t miss many greens, which always helps,” Harmeling said. “The main difference between the two days was I putted significantly better the first day.”

Asked about the team’s performance as a whole, Harmeling noted a similar trend.

“I think in the first round, most of the team putted better, and that is why the scores might have been a little higher on Sunday,” Harmeling said. “We’ve also been playing a lot of golf, and we were pretty tired on the second day.”

Despite a three-hour weather delay that cut daylight short Saturday, the Tigers had an early tee time, so the players were able to finish their first rounds before dark. The inclement weather did, however, factor into the team’s practice schedule after the first round.

“As a team, one thing is for sure, the weather did not allow us to practice as we would have liked on Saturday afternoon,” sophomore Juan Pablo Candela said.

The playing conditions and time of play on Sunday were also less than ideal.

“While on the course, weather was actually beautiful for us, since we played in the mornings and everyone else had to play in the afternoons,” Candela added. “But the weather definitely made the course harder on Sunday, and adjusting on Sunday morning might have been one of the problems.”

Virginia proved to be too tough for the other teams in the field, winning its home tournament with a final team score of one-under. The Cavaliers edged out Augusta State by three shots in a close race for first place.

Aside from Harmeling, the three other Tiger golfers in the scoring foursome had difficult second rounds. Junior Drew Maliniak tied for 62nd place with a 74 in round one and an 81 in round two, while junior Max Schechter tied for 75th with an even-par 72 on Saturday and an 85 on Sunday. Candela rounded out the team tied for 83rd with a first-round 78 and a second-round 81. Maliniak is also a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.

“Personally, my ball striking in round one was much better than in round two,” Schechter said. “I was able to hit more fairways and greens on Saturday, which made for an easy, stress-free round with a lot of birdie chances and tap-in pars.”

Getting the ball on the green was problematic for Schechter after Saturday.

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“On Sunday, I missed a lot of greens, which meant that I was scrambling to prevent bogies and did not have many birdie chances,” Schechter said. “I also made a lot of big numbers, which killed my chances. As for the rest of the guys, I actually have no clue what happened to them between rounds. Evan played great both days even when the course was harder on Sunday.”

Despite closing out its 2008 spring season with a difficult final round in its final tournament, the team is in good shape for next season, as the team graduates no players.

“Overall, this has not been the ideal season for us,” Candela said. “I just hope that the lessons learned will translate into an increased awareness next year of what’s actually going on with our games and on what we need to be doing to play well in every tournament.”

Schechter offered a similarly positive outlook on his upcoming senior season.

“We feel very good about next year,” Schechter said. “Our incoming freshmen are very solid players, and we expect them to compete for traveling spots right away.”

This offseason improvement will also entail a lot of mental and physical effort on the part of all present and future Princeton golfers.

“As a team, we need to work on playing consistent[ly] from day to day,” Schechter said. “We have had too many tournaments this season where we play well on a Saturday and then fall off the leader board on Sunday due to poor play. I hope that we gain confidence by putting ourselves in pressure situations this summer, whether it is tournaments, club events or games with friends.”