It all comes down to this weekend for the Penn men's golf team. The Quakers will tee off against the rest of the Ivy League tomorrow and Sunday for the Ivy League Championship.
The Ancient Eight victor earns a spot in the NCAA Regionals, where top teams advance to compete for the national championship.
The Princeton Tigers have won the Ivy title for three straight years.
"We are playing our best golf of the season and are peaking at the right time," Penn coach Heath Davidson said.
"There are three teams which have a chance to win," Davidson explained. "We are definitely one of them."
Princeton and Yale promise tough competition in the 54-hole event to be held in Jackson, N.J., at Metedeconk National Golf Club.
"This tournament is ours to lose," senior Endel Liias said. "If we play well, I don't think anyone can beat us."
Following its seventh place finish in Annapolis, Md., at the Navy Invitational -- the Quakers were the highest ranked Ivy finisher -- Penn has had three weeks of practice to prepare for this weekend. The Princeton Invitational was canceled due to weather the weekend of April 12-13.
"The extra time has benefited us," Liias said.
The Quakers have practiced nearly every day at their home course, the Philadelphia Cricket Club.
A focus has been on the short game.
"It's going to come down to putting," senior co-captain Chad Perman said.
"We've been playing better each week," Perman said. "We definitely feel ready."
Perman won the individual competition at the Drew Upton Tiger Classic on March 31 and has led the team all season.
This weekend's golf course may prove to be the Quakers' ninth opponent this weekend.
"It's top-notch," Davidson said. "Demanding off the tee and on the green."
"The better team is definitely going to earn it," Perman added, commenting on the difficulty of the course as "awesome."
"The better the course, the better for us," Perman said.
Competitors will play all of Metedeconk's 27 holes each day. The four lowest of five scores will be counted as the team score.
The tournament formerly featured 36 holes on Saturday and 18 on Sunday.
"I like the way they are doing it this year," Perman said. "This way, not everything happens on the first day."
The lineup will remain the same -- Perman, senior co-captain Peyton Wallace, Liias, junior Adam Squires and freshman Derek Rogers.
Liias voiced the team's excitement.
"We've got nothing left in the bag," he said. "We're ready to take it down."
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