The Hamilton Men’s and Women’s golf teams have started off their spring campaigns with great performances throughout March and April. Both teams began their seasons with a trip to Florida over Spring Break to compete in their first matches of the year, against Trinity College for the men, and Mount Holyoke and Vassar College for the women.
After shooting 79 at the NESCAC championships last fall, Winda Wanikpun ’20 was already back on her game early in the season. Wanikpun led the Continentals and won the round on March 16 with a score of 78. She was followed by Sophia Archos ’21, shooting an 89, Anne McClanahan, shooting a 95, Libbie Warner ’19, shooting a 100, and Gabrielle Wierda ’21, shooting a 101. With a team score of 362, Hamilton captured second place, just behind Vassar’s score of 356 and ahead of Mount Holyoke’s 384..
Last Sunday, April 22, the women returned to competition at the Ithaca Invitational, where they placed 3rd out of 10 teams on the par-72 Ithaca Country Club course. Warner led the Continentals, shooting an 81 and securing a second-place spot. Wanikpun came in one stroke behind her, tying for fifth place with an 82. McClanahan came next, tying for 17th with a 89, followed by Wierda, tying for 25th with a 93, and Archos, tying for 29th with a 94. Hamilton’s team score was 345, putting them in third place — only behind SUNY Cortland and Ithaca College. Sunday’s performance set the team up for their third meet of the season this weekend at the Williams Spring Invitational.
The men also started their season in Florida in match play against Trinity College at John’s Island Club West Course. Match play is an uncommon form of golf scoring that determines team scores based on which player completes holes in fewer strokes, rather than basing the score on the strokes themselves. The men’s team had come out of a 5th place finish in the fall NESCAC Championship qualifier, where Joe Tigani ’18 and Jeremy Benjamin ’19 qualified as individuals for the championship. Ripani came back strong on March 16 against Trinity, winning the 18th hole to beat Will Rosenfield of Trinity to earn one point for Hamilton, and Matt Cesare ’20 won the 16th, 17th, and 18th to tie his match record and earn half a point for Hamilton. As a team, however, the Continentals finished with only 1.5 points to Trinity’s 7.5, a stark loss to one of the nation’s best golf teams.
On April 14, the men rebounded to defeat SUNY Delhi at another two-team match. Tigani finished in first with a 74, closely followed by Andrew Watson ’19 shooting a 75 to place second. Bobby Osborn ’20 shot a 77, tying for third with Delhi’s Alex Fischer. The Continentals finished with a team score of 306, beating Delhi’s score of 316.
Last Saturday and Sunday, April 21 and 22, the men competed in the Williams Spring Invitational in a NESCAC preview meet, going up against Trinity, Middlebury, Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Bates, and Wesleyan. Tigani once again led the Continentals, tying for second place with a 76 on Saturday and a 74 on Sunday. Bobby Osborn followed, tying for 13th place with a 75 on Saturday and 81 on Sunday. Watson and Nick Randolph ’21 tied for 21st place, each scoring an 80 and 81, though on different days. Hamilton’s team score for both days was 628, earning them 4th place out of the 8 teams, a great sign for this weekend’s NESCAC Championship in Newington, Connecticut.
Both teams have golfed relatively few matches this season compared to the fall season, as the spring season in New York simply isn’t conducive to golfing weather. Now that it’s warm at last only two weeks remain in the semester. As the short spring season comes to a close, the team can look forward to a summer of training for next year’s fall season, when most of the men’s team and all of the women’s team will return. Unfortunately, top shooter Tigani and Nate Kramer ’18 will graduate this spring, but men’s returning stars Benjamin, Cesare, Osborne, Randolph, and Watson will be sure to carry the team to success.
On the women’s side, no players will graduate this spring, and potentially all six women could make their triumphant returns next year: a Archos, Celia Lau ’21, McClanahan, Wanikpun, Warner, and Gabrielle Wierda.
