While most Dartmouth students were complaining how the cold weather and rain put a crimp into their Green Key plans, the Big Green men's golfers had the weather to blame for ending their season prematurely. Playing at the NCAA East Regional Championship, the Big Green and five other teams were cut after the second round on Saturday.
The tournament, held at Glenmaura National Golf Club in Moosic, Pa. from Thursday to Saturday, was plagued by rain. Due to the poor weather conditions the tournament committee decided to cut the bottom six teams in the 27-school field after 36 holes to ensure completion of the tournament.
Yale, another of the three District 1 representatives, missed the cut, along with James Madison, Virginia Commonwealth, Seton Hall and Richmond.
The third District 1 team, Rhode Island, barely made the cut, sneaking in at 21st place. URI ended up in 20th place with 920, followed only by Penn State with 921.
After 36 holes, Dartmouth and Richmond were tied for 25th place at 639. Yale fell in last with 663.
Clemson was the overall winner of the tournament with 871, 12 strokes in front of University of North Florida at 883. The top 11 finishers move on to the National Championships at the Grand National Lake Course in Opelika, Al. on May 29-June 3.
Reg Millage of Virginia Commonwealth and Andrew Pratt of Tennessee tied for the individual lead with 218, five over at the par 71 Glenmaura. Both qualify for the national championship.
Lee Birchall '02 led all Dartmouth golfers with 74-76-75 " 225, good for a tie at 34th. He was allowed to finish the tournament as an individual.
"It was a great experience to compete against the top programs in the country and I think that we proved we could play with many of the scholarship schools," Birchall said.
"I was really happy with my play and we are looking forward to getting back there next year and hopefully qualifying for Nationals," he said.
The other Big Green golfers were Chris Welty '00 (74-84 " 158), Jero Esteve '03 (81-84 " 165), Andrew Piscano '02 (79-87 " 166) and Andrew Rymer '00 (90-89 " 179).
