The golf team saw its best result of the season on Monday, placing second at the Husson College Invitational held at the Penobscot Valley Country Club in Bangor, Maine. Tufts finished between two squads from host Husson College, which fielded two separate "Green" and "White" teams of five for the tournament. The Green team finished first with a two-day score of 597, 35 strokes ahead of the Jumbos' 632. The White team placed third with 639.
Although the Jumbos couldn't quite make good on sophomore Luke Heffernan's guarantee of a repeat championship, they could still take solace in their runner-up finish in the 10-team field.
Tufts shot a 317 on Sunday and a 315 on Monday, likely benefiting from an extra practice round on Saturday. Despite tough conditions when the scores counted, the Jumbos negotiated the par-72, 6442-yard course well.
"I liked the course, it was really inviting," junior Brett Hershman said. "It was playing tougher because it was very windy, and a lot of the tougher holes were into the wind, so we had to use a little more club. But all in all there were a lot of birdie-able holes, and we could attack the par fives."
Sophomore Dan Moll led the way for Tufts with a three-over-par 75 on Sunday and a seven-over 79 on Monday for a two-day total of 154, good enough for an eighth-place finish overall. Heffernan was not far behind, shooting two consistent rounds of 78 and 77 for a cumulative 155. Hershman carded an 81 in the first round and followed it with an 80 for a total of 161, while senior co-captain Phil Haslett registered an 83 and a 79 for a 162. Tufts only traveled with four players, so it didn't have the usual luxury of dropping the highest score when it came time to compute the team total.
Although the results this week were encouraging, the Jumbos still aren't satisfied with their performance.
"It was nice to be the second school in the tournament, but we wanted to go in and have a better performance ... as defending champs," Hershman said. "We left a lot of shots on the course."
The team will now look to work on its execution as it prepares for the New England Championships coming up in two weeks.
"When we hit fairways and greens we have to come through with a par," Hershman said. "We like where we're at for New Englands, we just need to execute like we know we can. If we get four or five guys clicking, we can do some damage."
