More prepared to head hopes, M. Golf heads hopes at Ivy Champs

Professional golfer Nick Faldo once said that "today's preparation is tomorrow's performance." It was this phrase that motivated him to achieve success on the PGA Tour. Last year at this time, the Penn men's golf team walked off the course at Metedeconk CC in Jackson, N.J., disappointed after finishing in second place behind Princeton in the Ivy League Championship. After realizing that there was little hope in making the NCAA tournament, the Quakers decided then and there to make a commitment to be more prepared for this year's championship -- which takes place this weekend. "We worked extremely hard in the off season," Penn sophomore Endel Liias said. "We worked hard to prepare for the Ivies, and we're going in playing well." Penn has been practicing twice a day to get ready for the Ivy Championships this year. "When you practice twice a day, all there is to do is play golf and study," Penn sophomore Chad Perman said. The Quakers will need every ounce of preparation to squeeze out a victory this weekend. Princeton and Yale, Penn's main rivals over the last few years, are very well matched against the Red and Blue. According to Liias, over the last 10 rounds when Penn and Princeton played head-to-head, only one stroke separates them. This weekend, just like last year, the course at Metedeconk will be the venue for the championship. There are three nine-hole courses at the country club, and this year the teams will compete on a nine-hole track they didn't see last year -- a track they rate as the most difficult of the three. "[The new nine] will be tough. It is a long and demanding layout that requires you to be sharp mentally and physically," Penn senior co-captain Kyle Moran said. "There will be a premium on ball striking," Perman said. "The course will be long with hazards, water, trees and have ungulated, cliffed-off greens. It penalizes you if you miss shots." The Ivy Championships consist of 36 holes on Saturday and an additional 18 holes on Sunday. Each team is allowed to send five players to compete, but the total score for a round is determined by only the four players with the lowest scores. Theoretically, a team can win the tournament if one player has a bad weekend. As of now, the Quakers participating in the tournament are Perman, Moran, Liias and Peyton Wallace. Coach Francis Vaughn has yet to choose his fifth player. But regardless of the five-man line-up Vaughn sends, the Quakers know that the preparation they put in up to now will only boost their chances of winning it all.

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