Swirling winds and tough greens greeted the Penn men's golf team this weekend at the annual Big 5 Tournament over the weekend.
Fighting these elements, the Quakers managed a sixth-place overall finish in the 12-team field and finished second among the Big 5 teams, five strokes behind Temple.
The tournament took place at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, Penn's home course located in Flourtown, Pa.
"There were good points and bad points this weekend," Penn coach Heath Davidson said. "We put ourselves out of the tournament the first day but played much better the second."
The young Quakers team had a solid second day despite some tough conditions, finishing six strokes behind Georgetown and tying runner-up Princeton with a score of 309 on Sunday. Due to its rough start, however, Penn finished 19 strokes behind the Hoyas, who are currently the top-ranked team in the district.
In addition to Big 5 rivals Temple, Villanova, La Salle and Saint Joseph's, Penn squared off against three Ivy League foes, Yale, Columbia and Princeton --teams that are perennially the class of the Ivy League.
Among these squads, Penn was bested only by Princeton, who finished 17 strokes ahead of the Quakers. Penn defeated Columbia and Yale -- the Lions and Elis tied for seventh with Saint Joseph's -- by eight strokes.
Despite the Quakers' solid performance, they could have performed better.
On the second day, Penn had an opportunity to finish higher in the standings following the front nine, but lost the chance over the final nine holes. The wind had dried the golf course considerably, causing the greens to play faster than anticipated. This led to the Quakers losing strokes down the stretch and, ultimately, their sixth-place finish.
The 10-over-par finish of sophomore Derek Rogers led the way for the Quakers and was good for a ninth-place overall finish. Penn freshmen Patrick Cooper (+12) and Sean Barrett (+13) finished 17th and 24th, respectively. Junior Jeff Riley was in fourth place among the Quakers, finishing at 15 over par.
This weekend marked the best performance for the Quakers so far this fall. In the first tournament of the season, Penn finished 30 strokes behind Georgetown.
This week the Quakers trimmed that number to 19 strokes, most of which occurred on the rough first day of the tournament.
While they have demonstrated there is still room for improvement, the Quakers believe they are a much better team now than they were at the outset of the fall season, which will conclude this upcoming weekend at the Temple Invitational Tournament.
"We're a young team and we're going to have some growing pains," Davidson said. "We're using this fall to get ready for the Ivy League Championships in the spring."
