Sports
Washburn ’19 and Tigani ’18 post impressive scores for golf teams
By Yoshi Hill ’16
April 21, 2016
Tags sports
Last weekend, the Hamilton women’s golf team headed west to Baldwinsville, NY for the Le Moyne Invitational, while the men’s team drove east to compete in Skidmore’s Dr. Tim Brown Invitational at Ballston Spa Country Club in Ballston Spa, NY. The men’s team has been idle since their spring break trip to Florida and were understandably anxious to commence the season, while the women’s group sought to move on from a disappointing 11th place finish the week before at the Vassar Invitational.
Spearheaded by a remarkable performance from Electra Washburn ’19, who tallied a total two-day score of 170 and placed sixth overall, the women’s team reversed their fortunes and finished in the middle of the pack against Division I and II competition.
Despite playing on Timber Banks Golf Course, one of the more difficult courses in the region, Libbie Warner ’19, another impressive first-year golfer, battled to tie for 14th place with a score of 178, while captain Liz Morris ’16 tied for 22nd out of 44 golfers total. The host school Le Moyne placed third, just ahead of the Continentals, and St. Lawrence University ran away with the victory thanks to an impressive team score of 669.
Content with the weekend’s results, Morris said, “The fourth place finish gave us confidence going into our final match. This week we’ll be working on fine-tuning different aspects of our games, but we’re well-equipped to mount an upset next week.”
Washburn and Warner have distinguished themselves this year, and with three years remaining in their Hamilton careers, the team’s immediate future seems promising.
The men’s efforts culminated in a third place finish, largely thanks to the individual triumph of Joe Tigani ’18. 10 teams comprising 57 golfers played on a par-71 course that measured 6,310 yards. Tigani played the finest tournament of his career, scoring a 70 on the first day and carding a career-best 69 the following day.
Captain Bayard Geeslin ’16 stressed Tigani’s importance to the team, saying, “It was awesome to have Joe win the tournament and be so sharp coming out of the winter months. He is an essential part of the team and our success depends on Joe.”
Behind him, Jeremy Benjamin ’19 finished in a tie for 19th place with 151 strokes and Geeslin tied for 25th place with a score of 153. The Continentals recorded a solid 303 four-man team score on Saturday, and from there proceeded to reduce this score by eight strokes for an exceptional 295 Sunday team score. In the end, Hamilton narrowly missed out on second place to Clarkson University by four strokes. Skidmore took the team title with 582 strokes.
Even with the strong result, Geeslin was not completely satisfied by his team’s performance, saying, “We aren’t ecstatic with the performance as a team this weekend but it was good to get the cobwebs out of the way.” He added that the slight dismay was due to “our very high expectations for the spring because we expect to contend for every tournament we compete in due to the quality we have on the team.”
The women’s team will conclude their season this weekend at the Williams College Spring Invitational at Taconic Golf Club. The men, in addition to the same contest at Williams, will participate in the NESCAC Championship on April 30, having qualified in early October by clinching third place at the NESCAC men’s golf championship qualifier. Hamilton has made the event seven out of nine years since the conference switched to this format. Middlebury College, which won the qualifier, will host the event at Ralph Myhre Golf Course, where the top four NESCAC teams will vie for the conference title.