Golf takes seventh place at Georgetown

A poor second day of scores hurts the Penn golf team in Virginia. The Penn men's golf team continued its fall schedule this past weekend at the Georgetown Boys Invitational. The contest was played over their home course, which is a par 72 at Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Va. While Penn played well on day one, the Quakers faltered a bit on Sunday, finally reaching the clubhouse with a seventh-place finish and a team score of 599 strokes. "It was probably a better field than last week," Penn coach Francis Vaughn said. "Teams from out of district including Xavier, East Carolina and Eastern Michigan along with perennial district powers Navy, Georgetown and Seton Hall were all there." Not coincidentally, five of those squads bested the Quakers. Leading the way for Penn was sophomore Kieran Doherty, who posed consecutive rounds of 73 on consecutive days. Showing consistency, his 146, two over par score was good enough for 17th overall. The drop-off in scoring Sunday was a team-wide epidemic, as Doherty was the only Quaker to maintain his score from the previous day. Every other scoring member of the Quakers posted a score at least two shots higher than day one. Following Doherty was Penn senior captain Brian Owens (73-75), junior Rob Goldfaden (71-77), sophomore Kyle Moran (77-81) and sophomore John Barad (76-88). Overall, the tournament was won by the host Hoyas. They finished with an overall score of 573. The final tally was a lengthy 26 strokes better than the 7th place Quakers. The individual title also went to a Hoyas golfer, as Andreas Hbuer finished six under par over the 36 holes. While the results may not seem as strong as those from last year, it is hard to avoid the steep increase in Penn's strength of schedule. The same score of 599 over 36 holes was good enough to win the Ivy Championships for Penn last year. It appears the bar has been raised, however, and a team score of 300 strokes per day will not be enough anymore. "Our schedule is much more difficult this year, shooting this score last year in a tournament we would have won," Vaughn said. "We have really stepped up the quality of our opponents." Penn will take this weekend off to rest and practice, and look for a strong five man lineup for the St. John's Invitational in two weekends at Bethpage State Park.