Sports
Geeslin ’16 and Washburn ’19 win individual titles at Yahnundasis Club
By Sterling Xie ’16
October 1, 2015
For the first time, both Hamilton’s men’s and women’s golf teams won tournaments on the same weekend. Hosting the Hamilton Invitational, the Continentals’ only home tournament of the fall at Yahnundasis Golf Club in New Hartford, N.Y., the men’s squad shot a two-day total of 601 to win by a single stroke over Manhattanville College, while the women posted a cumulative 664 to defeat Nazareth College.
The tournament was the first Hamilton Invitational hosted at Yahnundasis instead of the Skenandoa Club, where both teams had previously held home tournaments. Explaining the difference between the courses, women’s captain Liz Morris ’16 said, “The Yahnundasis is the more challenging of the two for a few reasons. I’d argue the greens are far more challenging. They are faster, more sloped and provide trickier breaks. This makes a huge difference in scoring because familiarity with the course is a great home advantage. I’d also say the course doesn’t give away its secrets the first few times you play. Even after practicing there for five weeks, I’m still discovering better ways to play certain holes in order to get the best angle depending on pin placement.”
Even without the same friendly scoring conditions as Skenandoa, several golfers were able to post career-lows. On the men’s side, Bayard Geeslin ’16 captured individual medalist honors, leading the 33-player field with a total score of 1-over 143. Geeslin’s even-par 71 on Sunday tied his career best, and it was the first time this fall that the senior posted Hamilton’s lowest score. Joe Tigani ’18, who paced the Continentals in the first three tournaments of the season, was the tournament runner-up to Geeslin, finishing three strokes back with a total of 146.
As the college’s only current two-sport varsity fall athlete, Geeslin’s circumstances are extremely unique. A midfielder on the soccer team, he explains, “I have wanted to play golf full time since high school…but simply didn’t see a way that I could with soccer.” Geeslin had previously played golf in the spring, when soccer was out of season, and consistently carded some of the lowest scores on the team, including an individual medalist honor at the Manhattanville College/New York University Spring Invitational last April.
However, when asked to take a larger leadership role this fall, Geeslin claims he wanted to carve out a larger year-round position with the golf program in his final year of collegiate eligibility. “Last spring, I was voted captain of the golf team, and that was the final straw,” he says. “Being captain and being a senior, I rationalized that this might be my last time to play both competitive soccer and organized golf for a school that I love, so I decided to take them both on at the same time.”
Golf coach Steve Stetson, who commands both the men’s and women’s programs, reveals that Geeslin was an unexpected asset who he didn’t initially envision becoming one of the team’s top golfers. “Bayard Geeslin was a total surprise to us. He came out last spring and won one tournament and played well in others. He is now our captain. He told us at the end of the spring that he would play golf in the fall. Obviously we were thrilled…we are trying to find out if playing two varsity sports in the same term has ever been attempted in the NESCAC. His name will be the stuff of legends down the road a few years.”
The women, who had won one tournament in their three-year history before this season, have doubled that total this fall alone after this past weekend’s victory. While they didn’t face nearly as deep a field as the men’s side, one can simply look at the team’s own scores to see the unmistakable progress. In the program’s last home invitational at Skenandoa in May 2014, Hamilton finished second with a combined total of 762, while no player shot under 170 for the weekend. This week, Hamilton beat that total by 98 strokes on a harder course, with three players shooting under 170.
Morris, one of the program’s charter members from 2012, reflected on the team’s newfound depth after the tournament. “The largest difference is the depth on our team,” she suggested. “Our two first-years made impressive contributions in each tournament round and the returners posted personal bests. Since four scores out of the five count, it’s really important that we have five players capable of shooting low numbers and that’s what we’ve been seeing this fall. This season has been exciting too as we now are competing for the title come Sunday. The next two tournaments (LeMoyne and Williams Invitationals) will demonstrate how far we’ve come as a team. We are now competitive with teams that previously would have beat us by thirty strokes.”
Morris and Katie Veasey ’17 both posted single-round career-bests at Yahnundasis, the former shooting an 84 on Sunday and the latter equaling her previous lowest score with an 80 on Saturday. The two upperclassmen finished narrowly behind Electra Washburn ’19 (160) and Libbie Warner ’19 (164); the win was the second straight medalist honor for Washburn after she came in first at the SUNY Cobleskill Fighting Tigers Jug Classic two weeks ago.
Moving forward, both programs will face a step up in the level of competition. The men will attempt to reach the NESCAC tournament, held every spring, next week at the Taconic Golf Club in Williamstown, M.A. Though they won the qualifier last fall, this year figures to be tougher, as the tournament won’t be at Skenandoa again, where the Continentals held the home-course advantage.
Geeslin gave a detailed layout of Williams’ home course, which features unfriendly greens and unusual elevation changes. “Taconic at Williams is, in my opinion and many others’, the nicest and one of the hardest golf courses in the NESCAC. The course is very fast in the fall. The greens are the major, but not the only, defense of the course and if you find yourself above the pin you can easily be looking at four putts…the other major feature of the course is the elevation change. It is right in the middle of a mountain range and many tee shots are raised and many fairways are sloped, making finding short grass a tough task.”
Despite a challenging course that includes two long and difficult closing holes in 16 and 17, Geeslin contends that the similarity between Taconic and Yahnundasis should help the Continentals. “The fact that the qualifier is at Williams this year does give the host team an advantage in terms of local knowledge and experience,” he explains, “but our home course this year, Yahnundasis, is a similar layout and has prepared us for the test that is Taconic. I am very confident in the quality in our team and I think we should qualify and contend to win the NESCAC Qualifier.”
The team actually played at the course on Sept. 12-13 in the Williams Fall Invitational, but struggled en route to a sixth-place finish. Stetson believes the Continentals did not play up to their capabilities that weekend, while also noting that he expects the men to qualify for the NESCACs and improve upon last spring’s showing, when Hamilton finished last among the four schools. “Our last trip to Williams saw Bayard not playing anywhere near his best. We now all have seen and played the course so we expect to do much better than a few weeks ago. We will need to play very well to win due to the competition in this league and where the competition is being held, but our guys like and respect the course. All things considered, we expect to do very well…last year's finish in the spring tournament was an unexpected nightmare for all of us.”
The women’s squad will also get an opportunity to qualify for the NESCACs for the first time, but before they play the conference qualifier, Hamilton faces a challenging tournament at Le Moyne. In the same tournament back in April 2014, the women finished fifth out of seven teams, four of which were Division II schools. Though Williams is the overwhelming favorite as one of the country’s best programs, the Continentals are realistic candidates to challenge other top NESCAC schools such as Amherst and Middlebury with strong rounds from their top four.
Both teams will be on the course this weekend at unfamiliar venues. But based on how significantly the scores have improved this fall, both should also be eager to embrace the pressures that come with higher stakes.