Penn golf will hit the road this weekend and compete for the Ivy League championship, with the men’s team looking to defend its title in Greenwich, Conn., and the women looking to win their first league crown since 2010 in Jackson, N.J.
The women’s team is coming in with momentum, having finished top-five in each of its first three tournaments this spring after a strong fall season. Coach Mark Anderson is optimistic about his team’s chances going to the big tournament.
“We expect to win,” Anderson said. “Harvard certainly has a good team, but we’ve beaten them a few times this year. We feel like if we play well, we can beat anybody.”
The men, however, have struggled this season. Following a disappointing fall, the team has stumbled through the spring thus far. With his team ice-cold going into the championship tournament, coach Bob Heintz is keeping his expectations in check.
“Statistically, we’ve been too inconsistent to be considered a favorite for this event,” Heintz said. “So we’re looking at this as being underdogs and young. We still feel that we have a shot at the title, but it’s gonna take some strong contributions all the way throughout the lineup for us to have a chance.”
Of course, the men were underdogs heading into the tournament last year, and that didn’t stop them from going worst-to-first, taking the Ivy crown after a last-place finish in 2014. Senior captain Patrick O’Leary is the lone returning member from last year’s title-winning five (teams send five players and count the top four scores).
“As far as our leadership, I was there and Patrick was there. These other four guys, we just have to get them to buy into the process,” Heintz said. “Golf is really strange — you can have guys who look like they’re the favorites going in, and then somebody walks in there and plays really well and takes it away from people.
“We’re very capable of that. I’ve said it all year, we’re definitely among the most talented teams in the league. We just haven’t been very consistent.”
The men will send O’Leary, junior Matt Kern, sophomore Carter Thompson and freshmen Josh Goldenberg and KJ Smith. The women will send juniors Isabella Rahm, Erin Lo and Sophia Chen, sophomore Tiffany Yau and freshman Rachel Dai. The women’s team has no seniors, so nobody will be playing under the pressure of knowing it is their final chance to win a league title.
Regardless of where the team finishes on the leaderboard, Heintz has other targets he’d like to hit over the three rounds.
“I’d like to see if the guys can finish stronger than they start this week,” the coach said, calling the team’s recent tendency to falter down the stretch a “disturbing” trend. “And I’d like to have us shoot a score under 290. We haven’t done that this year, and this would be a heck of a time to pull that off.”
Rahm is hoping to bring home some extra hardware to go with what she hopes will be a title-winning team performance.
“Winning the [individual] Ivy League championship is a personal goal of mine,” the captain said. “My short game is very strong right now, so hopefully that’s going to help me at the tournament.”
It’s an individual sport, but both Red and Blue squads will need excellent individual performances across the board to succeed as a team.
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