Women's Golf: Men and women open spring seasons on southern trip

At the beginning of spring break, the women’s golf team played in the Winthrop Intercollegiate Tournament at Rock Hill Country Club in Rock Hill, S.C.

The Tigers rounded out their week of golf competing in the Pinehurst Challenge in Pinehurst, N.C.

The Tigers finished third in Winthrop, and junior Rachel Blum finished second overall, spurred by her final-round score of 73.

This was one of Blum’s highest finishes at Princeton.

“This tournament was not our best showing, but it was the first time this season that we played on real grass,” junior Maggie Boberg said. “We hit the ball well this weekend, and we all were really looking forward to practicing on grass.”

“The team already has a good showing for this season,” Boberg said. “Junior Rachel Blum posted good scores in this past tournament as well as her second place last week. Sophomore Wonji Choi had a good weekend at Pinehurst as well. We are hopefully going to be really competitive this season.”

This Monday and Tuesday, the top five girls on the team — senior Michelle Grilli, Blum, junior Kate Scarpetta, Choi and freshman Anna Jang — played in the Pinehurst Challenge.

Princeton finished 14th out of 18 teams in the field.

“These last two days were a different field of really good teams — the field was a lot more competitive,” Boberg said. “Though this is not an excuse for the lower showing, I think it was a long week, and everyone was tired.”

Over Easter weekend, the Tigers will play in the Ole Miss Rebel Intercollegiate tournament at Ole Miss Golf Club in Oxford, Miss.

“We will come back a lot more renewed and ready to play at Ole Miss in a week and a half,” Boberg said.

The men’s golf team opened its spring season by playing in the C&F Bank Intercollegiate tournament at the Kingsmill Golf Club in Williamsburg, Va.

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The team struggled, eventually finishing in 18th place out of 22 teams in competition.

“I think we were all a bit rustier than we maybe should’ve been,” senior Greg Stamas said. “It was a little bit rough, but we’re trying to build towards Ivys, so we’re going to take it one step at a time.”

The team’s course, Springdale, is still closed down due to weather.

“Our short game could’ve been much better than it was. That usually comes with time and practice,” Stamas said. “We haven’t gotten much of a chance to practice in Princeton because of the snow.”

Junior Eric Salazar shot a 70 on the first 18 and 77 in his second round to lead his team with a two-round score of +5, good enough for 18th place in the tournament.