The men's golf team traveled to Notre Dame over the weekend, but the Quakers didn't get any luck of the Irish. Everything about the one-day tournament challenged the Quakers, who carded a team score of 601. That put them in seventh out of nine schools competing.
From the get-go, Notre Dame's on-campus 7,000 yard, par-70 Warren Golf Course - which opened for the spring season only a week ago - gave the team some problems.
"The grass wasn't fully grown in yet since it just opened, but the biggest challenge was that it was still wet," junior Mike Blodgett said. "When a course is wet, the ball doesn't fly as far and you have longer iron shots. You have to make up and down shots more often, so the length of the course was part of our problem."
But assistant coach Chad Perman thinks the venue's difficulty will benefit the Red and Blue in the long run.
"We played at a course that is extremely tough and has held many NCAA events in the past," Perman said. "It was important to get some of that experience as we prepare for the Ivies because Galloway is a tough golf course as well."
Galloway National Golf Club in Galloway, N.J., will host the men's Ivy League Championships in two weeks.
In addition to the long fairways and undulating greens at Notre Dame, the men faced their toughest competition to date.
"It was one of the better fields we've seen all year," Blodgett said. "We lucked out by being paired with Northwestern and Notre Dame [who finished first and second, respectively] for both rounds. It really gave us an opportunity to see the level of play that we want to get to."
Blodgett, who led the team at the George Washington Invitational two weeks ago, again shot the lowest score for the Quakers, and was the only Penn golfer to finish with a top-20 rank. His score of 71 for the first round and 73 for the second gave him a 144 for the day, good enough to tie for 12th.
Even though no other Penn golfer scored better than 12-over par, he insists that the tournament was a positive experience.
"We went to the tournament to prepare ourselves. Overall we're pleased with how we performed," Perman said. "We're going to work on our short game to try to reduce our scores, but I think a lot of good came from the tournament."
While the Quakers may be currently satisfied with its performance, finishing 14 strokes back of Columbia should be worrisome if they intend to repeat as champions.
