At this weekend's Yale Invitational at the Course at Yale, the Penn women's golf team will be facing more than the rest of the Ivy League. They'll be facing a course ranked in 1995 by Golf Magazine as the 52nd best in the country.
"We're going to have to hone in on our skills because it's a much more difficult and challenging course" than the course at the Princeton Invitational last weekend, sophomore Kim Thompson said. "Course management will be key. The greens are huge and a toned short game would help."
The course, which boasts a 65-yard deep green on the ninth hole, is made even more difficult by high grass and lengthy fairways.
"I find [the course] very difficult. There's a lot of carry and it's one of the largest courses we play," senior Laura Dolan said. "The heavy weeds make the course a lot more difficult because it's almost impossible to hit out of."
Penn coach Francis Vaughn recognizes a firm understanding of the course is necessary for success.
"The difficulty of the course is very high, and course knowledge plays a big role in getting a good score," Vaughn said.
As the Quakers move into the second weekend of their season, junior captain Melissa Aylor continues to be a true leader, and nobody recognizes this more than her coach. Aylor finished sixth at Princeton last weekend.
"She definitely leads by example in her demeanor on and off the course. I definitely see her as being our leader," Vaughn said.
After a 61st-place finish in her first tournament of the year, several members of the Quakers expect freshman Stephanie Stamas -- the youngest member of the team -- to continue to improve this week in New Haven.
Stamas "has a tournament under her belt. Once you play that first tournament in college, it makes everything so much easier," Thompson said. "She doesn't have to prove herself anymore -- she's already proven herself."
"She hits a good ball, she hits it straight, she's good with course management and she's only going to get better," Dolan said.
For this young team, this weekend is about more than scores -- it is about general improvement. A climb on the team leaderboard is not all that Penn is looking for.
"I'm not worried about how we place, just what we shoot and how well we play according to our ability and how prepared we are," Thompson said.
And it is this type of development that Vaughn hopes to see from the Quakers going into their second tournament of the year.
"They were a little rusty last weekend," he said. "I expect them to play better. I think we'll improve."
