Men’s Golf Masters the Princeton Invitational

There were two major headlines in golf this weekend: Rory McIlroy being the first to win back-to-back Masters tournaments since Tiger Woods in 2002, and the Harvard men’s golf team slotting two hole-in-ones on its way to resolutely dominating the Princeton Invitational Tournament.

In the spirit of golf’s most renowned weekend, the Crimson (-3, 849) led the field — which included all seven participating Ivy League schools and the Tigers’ B Team (+63, 915) — to secure its first tournament victory of the 2025-26 season.

At the par-71 Springdale Golf Club in Princeton, N. J., Georgetown (+3, 855) and host Princeton (+5, 857) placed second and third, falling just behind Harvard in the overall team rankings.

Between third and fourth place, there was a significant gap in score; however, Seton Hall (+21, 873) and Penn (+22, 874) closed out the top five in the field of thirteen.

The Crimson continued its solid start to the spring season, where two weekends prior, it shot 10 above par to finish fourth in the field at the Cutter Creek Intercollegiate.

Harvard’s past three results (first, fourth, and second) mark a substantial improvement from the early fall season, where the team placed seventh, ninth, and eighth until turning the tide at the Georgetown Invitational in October, where it placed second.

At Princeton, sophomore captain William Ma (T2, E) improved from his 16th-place (+3) finish at Cutter Creek to top the individual rankings for the Crimson.

Going into the third round, Ma had an overall score of +2, but thanks to one of Harvard’s two holes-in-one coming on hole five, he finished the tournament even to secure his second-place finish.

Freshman Morgan Riley (T4, +1), sophomore Ieuan Jones (T14, +3), and freshman Isaac Ahn (T14, +3) joined Ma as the five Crimson golfers in the top 20. Although the aforementioned four were the only players technically counted for the Harvard team score in the top 20, junior Jonathon Hartono (IND T18, +4) also snuck in to punctuate the squad’s results.

A promising note for the Crimson going into the Ivy League Tournament is that all five in the top 20 improved their scores compared to par versus their results at Cutter Creek, a trend which the Crimson will hope to build upon at the conference championship in Springfield, N.J., on April 24-26.

Sophomore Barry Zhang’s (23, +5) decisiveness in the third round at Cutter Creek unfortunately wasn’t replicated at Princeton, as he ended +3 in round three due to a costly double bogey on hole eight. Although a strong start to the tournament (E in round one) helped Zhang round out the Crimson’s starting five, making Harvard the only program with five — six, including Hartono as an individual — players in the top 25.

The story of Riley’s climb to fourth place is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable story lines this season and arguably a pinnacle moment of Riley’s rookie season. Failing to hit even one hole below par in addition to two double bogeys on holes five and 15, Riley wound up +8 after round one. In fairness to him, four other Crimson golfers hit bogeys or double bogeys on five and 15 in round one, which was improved upon in later rounds.

The rookie excelled in rounds two and three, though, as his individual scores of -4 and -3 led Harvard and brought him to his ultimate +1 total. Although Riley’s story doesn’t end there. To reach his -4 round two score, the freshman hit a momentum-shifting hole-in-one on par three hole 13.

Jones, meanwhile, excelled in round one, recording four birdies on the back nine, taking advantage of the par-fives on the course, including the massive 572-yard hole 17. The sophomore earned a -2 round score. While Jones kept up his consistent style of play on holes nine through 16 in round two, back-to-back bogeys on 17 and 18, along with three bogeys in the first nine, contributed to his +4 round score. In round three, he broke free from his spree of bogeys on hole two to ultimately score +1 on his road to 14th place. Jones’s result is a substantial jump from his overall +8 score at Cutter Creek while also demonstrating a continuation of strong first rounds like his even round one at Cutter Creek or +1 at the Hamptons Intercollegiate back in early October.

Speaking of the Hamptons, at that tournament, Yale actually finished a place (7th) above Harvard (8th). Yet, some things don’t change as the Bulldogs (7th, 877) once again finished seventh at Princeton, only this time the Crimson finished first, in a sort of natural self-correction event.

Ma’s masterful second-place finish, in part a result of his hole-in-one and overall -2 round three, was largely due to consistent rounds one and two. In round one, he finished +2 but only hit a total of three bogeys and a birdie. Round two was a bit more chaotic in terms of the scorecard, but when it was all said and done, the sophomore’s four bogeys and four birdies evened out into an E going into the crucial round three.

Round three wasn’t just pivotal for Ma, as Sunday’s round would also determine Harvard’s final placement in a tightly contested field. The Crimson was tied with Princeton and Georgetown at +4, with Princeton having just hit -1 in round two and looking to overtake the Hoyas and Harvard.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, three Crimson golfers stepped up to the tee and hit below par, including the aforementioned -2 and -3 for Ma and Riley, along with Ahn’s -3.

After shooting six-over in the first two rounds, Ahn didn’t back down as he worked through the tricky hole 15 to go from a double bogey in round one to a bogey in round two to par in round three, along with five total birdies compared to just two bogeys in round three to end the tournament at +3.

When it mattered most, the Crimson stepped up. Its -3 team finish, along with five players making the top 25, highlights the right time to get hot for Harvard as it gears up for the Ivy League Tournament, which will also be held in New Jersey in just a few short weeks.

After its third-place finish in last year’s Ivy League Championship Tournament, falling short to Princeton and Columbia, the Crimson will hope to bring its newfound consistency and third-round clutch factor as it travels next to Springfield, N.J., to vie for the conference championship from April 24-26.