As many of Penn’s teams approach the midpoint of their spring seasons, the women’s golf squad is still waiting to tee off its 2015 campaign. But the Quakers won’t have to wait much longer.
On Thursday, the team will head to Bedminster, N.J., to take part in the Seton Hall Pirate Invitational. The Quakers will compete for the top spot in a field of 12, which includes Ivy foes Yale, Princeton and Columbia.
It was a rough winter in the Philadelphia area, but Penn coach Mike Anderson doesn’t think the team will be too rusty in its first action this weekend.
“I feel pretty good about our preparation this spring,” the coach said. “We’ve been fortunate to get out on the course three or four times since spring break.”
In fact, Anderson believes the Quakers might have a bit of an edge over their competition, despite being forced to deal with the rough weather.
“I know some schools farther northeast than us haven’t been able to get on the course yet,” he said.
Penn will send five golfers to the two-round tournament, with the worst score of the five being omitted from each round’s tally. Anderson said he would send freshman Allison Wong, sophomores Erin Lo, Isabella Rahm and Sophia Chen and senior captain Amanda Chin — the team’s lone upperclassman — to the event.
Of course, this tournament and next week’s Brown Invitational carry far less weight for the Quakers than the Ivy League Championships, which will take place from April 24-26 in Bethlehem, Pa. There, Penn will try to earn its second league title in program history.
As a result, Anderson plans to use this week’s event as an opportunity to evaluate his players and figure out the best possible approach to a title pursuit.
“It’s important to see how we stack up against the other teams and see what we really need to work on over the next couple weeks,” he said.
And while Yale, Harvard and Princeton have traditionally dominated the Ancient Eight, Anderson is confident that his Quakers can put up a fight when the stakes are high.
“I really do [think] we can challenge the powerhouses,” Anderson said. “We have some girls that have made some improvements in their game, and if we can get four solid scores every round, we can definitely compete with the teams at the top.
“It’s just a matter of getting everybody to play well at the same time.”
Since being hired in 2008, Anderson has overseen the two most successful seasons in team history. The Quakers came out of nowhere to blow away the field and earn the 2010 Ivy League championship with a 22-stroke victory, and they took runner-up honors when they finished just six strokes behind Harvard in 2012.
But after fifth-place finishes in each of the last two seasons, the Red and Blue could certainly use a strong start to their season this weekend to build some all-important confidence and momentum.
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