Women's Golf Ties for Third at Rebel Intercollegiate

Fresh off its third first-place finish of the season, the four-time defending Ivy League champion Harvard women’s golf team headed to Oxford, Miss., this weekend to take part in the Rebel Intercollegiate. After 54 holes over three days of play, the squad came away in a tie for third with Fresno State.

In addition to escaping the gloomy New England weekend weather, the Crimson was able to see how it matched up against some of the nation’s strongest programs. Other than 14th place finisher Yale, no other Ancient Eight schools were represented in the field of 15. Champion Troy came out of the gates hot and never looked back, shooting an 871 en route to cruising to a 17-stroke victory over host Ole Miss. Harvard and Fresno State were 24 shots off the Trojans’ pace.

“We’re still at that stage of the season where everyone’s game is constantly improving,” Crimson freshman Anna Zhou said. “Most of the Southern schools have been able to practice outside and play in tournaments all winter. Coming down here, we’re able to learn a lot from our playing partners as well.”

At the individual level, Harvard was led by Zhou, whose +2 performance was good for fifth overall. Zhou improved as the weekend progressed, following up a round one 75 with scores of 73 and 70 over the next two days. Junior Anne Cheng chipped in a 222, placing her in a tie for 11th at six over par.

Senior Christine Lin and junior Nina Fairbairn also cracked the top 30, tying for 21st and 30th with scores of 227 and 229, respectively. Also competing for the Crimson contingent over the weekend was freshman Michelle Xie.

“Coming out of spring break, I think we all realized the areas we need to improve on,” Lin said. “We had a good gameplan this weekend to put our skills up to theirs, find out what we need to get better at, and also focus on our strengths.”

Troy’s Fatima Cano walked away with the individual prize with a score of -7, besting Moa Folke of Murray State by five strokes. Cano’s third-round 66 was the lowest score for any player over the three days.

Fellow Trojan Bianca Lohbauer and East Tennessee State’s Loy Hee Ying were the only other players to finish at or below par, ending up in a tie for third place at even par.

The Ole Miss Golf Course, sporting a total yardage of 6,323, played at a par-72 for the invite. Only 21 times were competitors able to put together under par rounds in 268 opportunities, representing a rate of only 7.8%. Of those 21 occurrences, 11 happened on the last day of play.

“Conditions were certainly a bit easier today,” Harvard coach Kevin Rhoads said. “The wind was less of a factor that it had been previous days, so I think that might be why average scores tended to be a bit lower.”

The Crimson was a model of consistency, holding onto the third position for the duration of the tournament. A first round 301 locked Harvard in at +13 after day one, behind only Troy and East Tennessee State. Firing a score of 300 in round two left the top three spots unchanged, as Troy and ETSU were more than up to the task.

The final day of play shook things up a bit.

The Bulldogs came into Sunday tied for sixth with Tulsa before shooting a 286 propelled them up the leaderboard, leaving their total score identical to the Crimson’s. The Rebels matched this accomplishment, climbing from fourth to second.

“This amounted to pretty much our first event of the spring season, so to have the scoring coming along how it did is a nice confirmation of what we’re working on and perhaps a little bit ahead of schedule,” Rhoads said. “But the players definitely aren’t completely satisfied. They don’t feel they’re hitting on all cylinders yet.”

Rounding out the top ten were Memphis, Western Carolina, Murray State, and Southern Miss. Next week the Crimson heads to the River Landing Classic in Wilmington, N.C. for what will be its final tune-up before the Ivy League Championship.

—Staff writer Jed Rothstein can be reached at jrothstein@college.harvard.edu.