Golf finishes seventh in finale

The Penn golf team concluded the 1997 spring season with a seventh-place finish at the Princeton Invitational. Competing against most of the district's other top-10 teams, the Quakers shot 294-314, for a two-day total of 608. This proved to be a 28-shot improvement on last year's 10th-place performance. While the team did not play quite as well as it had hoped, a bright spot could still be found. Junior Adam Bradshaw shot a remarkable 68-74, 142, and found himself tied for the individual title after play ended on Saturday. Facing Temple's Jim Sullivan in a one-hole playoff, Bradshaw birdied the first hole to earn his third individual title of the year. While Springdale Golf Club proved to be a tough test for the Red and Blue on day two, they did execute their shots well on Friday. "We are happy that we put ourselves in a position to win," said Quakers coach Francis Vaughn. Also competing for Penn were sophomore Brian Owens (159), senior Justin Cotler (154), junior Jay Weintraub (162) and freshman Rob Goldfaden (157). While the season is now over for Penn, the Quakers can reflect on a season of many accomplishments. Besides winning two invitationals in the fall, the team fell only one shot short of reaching its primary goal -- the Ivy crown. Only one year into Vaughn's tenure, the results have been remarkable. "We have come a long way in one year," said Vaughn. While the Quakers are a modest team, the quality Vaughn has instilled in them is the expectation of success. This has begun to show, and Penn, with an excellent crop of recruits coming next fall, expects the improvements to continue. The team will now play in various summer tournaments to prepare for the fall, most notably the Dixon-Stein and AJ Drexel Paul, a favorite of sophomore Brian Owens. The Quakers are confident that with this year's experience under their belts, more good things will come.