This past weekend, Hamilton’s men’s and women’s golf teams traveled for their matches. The Men’s team went to Middlebury, Vermont for the Duke Nelson Invitational. The women’s team participated in the William Smith Invitational in Clinton Springs, New York. It was the third weekend of play for both teams. The men’s team started off the season on fire, coming in first place in the Hamilton Invitational. The team posted a four-person team score of 307 on the first day and 309 on the second. They were a full 12 strokes ahead of the second place finishers. The following weekend the team finished second at the St. Lawrence University Men’s Golf Invitational. Joe Tigani ’18 shot a 148 over the weekend and earned first place individually. The women’s team also started the season with a strong performance. They finished in first place at the Hamilton Invitational to start their season. The team had an incredible first round as they shot a four-person score of 332, which was only 45 strokes ahead of their closest competition. Winda Wanikpun ’20 earned her first career medal by shooting a 162 over the 36 holes. The team had a solid performance when they placed seventh out of 12 teams at the St. Lawrence Invitational. I asked Head Coach Lauren Cupp how she felt the start of the season was going, and she said, “We’ve had a pretty hot start to the season, highlighted by our double win at our home tournament over Labor Day weekend. Our men’s team has been very competitive the last three weekends in some outstanding fields. Our women’s team has beaten some teams that they haven’t beaten in the history of the program.”

That brings us to this weekend. The men’s team finished in 14th place out of 22 teams at the Duke Nelson Invitational. Their four-person score was 615 and all four golfers contributed equally. Jeremy Benjamin ’19 led the way for the Continentals. He shot a 74 to start the weekend, and a 77 on Sunday. Benjamin finished in 42nd place out of the 113 golfers. Tigani shot a 154 and finished in 55th place. Andrew Watson ’19 shot an identical score. When asked about the start of the season and this past weekend he said, “The first three matches have gone very well overall and we’re improving as a whole and definitely moving in the right direction as a team. This past weekend at Middlebury was a tough one, but there were definitely some high points we can take away from it and we can all use it as an opportunity to work on the parts of our games that we need to play well moving forward.” Bobby Osborn ’20 rounded out the team’s score with a 156.

The women’s team played at William Smith College in Clinton Springs, New York. They had a very strong weekend. As a team they finished in third place out of eleven. For the third straight weekend, Wanikpun led the way. She shot a 36-hole total of 176 and finished in a tie for tenth place. I asked Wanikpun what her expectations were for the season and she responded, “I expect the team to grow a lot this season, hopefully with all the girls shooting consistently in the 80s and for us to hopefully beat Middlebury!” Celia Lau ’21 had a great weekend, especially given the fact that this is her first season on the team. She came in a tie for 14th place by shooting a 180 over the 36 holes. Fellow first-year Sophia Archos also had an impressive weekend. Archos ’21 shot a 184 and finished in a tie for 21st place. Annie McClanahan ’20 tied with Archos.

Both the Men’s and Women’s teams have two more weekends before the NESCAC qualifiers. Matt Cesare ’20 explained the importance of the culmination of the fall season, “Our team goals for the season are pretty much to qualify for NESCACs at the qualifier in 2 weeks. If we do that, we earn the right to play in NESCAC conference championship tournament in the spring.” Coach Cupp sounded on the same wavelength as she said, “Our goal is to work hard to improve individually so that we can excel as a team and program. I expect that both our men’s and women’s teams will be competitive in our league and will be in a position to win many tournaments.” When I followed-up and asked her how they would execute this, she said, “We are just going to take it one tournament at a time, one shot at a time.”