Golf: Aboff wins title for second year in a row

Play opened Friday at the Atlantic City Country Club, and Salazar posted a strong start to his tournament, posting a round of 69 to finish the round one shot off the lead.

Senior Max Schechter and freshman Patrick Wasserman performed well in their opening rounds, putting themselves in the top 25 in the individual competition with rounds of 74 and 75, respectively.

In the team competition, Princeton stood fifth at 294, nine shots off the pace set by Penn, the only team to shoot under par in the first day of competition.

On Saturday, the Tigers moved up to fourth overall in the team competition at 580, nine strokes off the pace. Salazar continued his strong play to hold on to second in the individual competition, now chasing the eventual champion Williamson. Wasserman posted a solid day to move to 12th in the overall standings.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, the third day saw Princeton’s squad slip back to fifth. But Salazar’s sustained performance kept the Orange and Black excited during the individual contest. Salazar sought to become the first Ivy individual champion from Princeton since Creighton Page ’05 won the crown in 2005.

Salazar was able to bridge the gap between himself and Williamson as a result of Williamson posting a 73 on Sunday afternoon, and the two golfers were tied at the end of three rounds.

In the playoff, Williamson and Salazar matched scores on the first two holes, but Williamson finally capturing the title on the third hole. Columbia captured the overall title with a score of 858, a whole 14 strokes ahead of the Tigers.

The women’s golf team remained in the thick of the hunt for an Ivy League title all weekend, but it ultimately finished third. Senior Susannah Aboff, however, captured her second straight individual title with an impressive score of +3.

On Friday, the Tigers stood third at +22, trailing the leader Harvard at +18 and second-place Yale at +20. Aboff shot even-par in the first round to move out to a two-shot lead over her nearest competitor, Harvard’s Ali Bode.

After the second day of play, Aboff and senior Marlowe Boukis were first and second in the individual competition with scores of +3 and +5, respectively. In the team competition, however, Harvard widened its lead to nine strokes over Princeton and eight over Yale.

The final day of tournament play featured a strong outing from Aboff that boosted her to the individual title, finishing five shots ahead of the runner-up, Yale’s Harriet Owers-Bradley.

Since the Ivy League Championship began 13 years ago, Aboff is the eighth Tiger to capture the individual title. She joins two-time winner Julia Allison ’01 and three-time champion Avery Kiser ’05 as the only Tigers to capture multiple titles.

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Princeton finished third overall with a score of +45, finishing behind Yale and repeat-champion Harvard, which posted a +40 for the weekend. Harvard placed its entire scoring four within the top 10, while Princeton posted a victory by Aboff and a fourth-place finish from Boukis.

After the tournament, Aboff was awarded the inaugural Ivy League Player of the Year honors, and she also has now captured All-Ivy Honors in each of her four years at Princeton.

Aboff was also awarded an individual selection to the NCAA East Regional Golf Tournament, which will be held in Florida from May 7 to May 9. In addition, Boukis was named to the All-Ivy team.