Women's golf dominates at Wellesley Invitational

On Saturday, playing nine holes in heavy rain, the women jumped out to a 19-stroke lead over the host and second-place finisher Wellesley. On Sunday they bettered their score, cruising to a dominating 46 stroke victory at the Wellesley Golf Invitational.

“The team did tremendously well,” said Kathryn Kuchefski ’04. “We all focused during the inclement weather and pushed each other as a team in order to cap off the victory. It was definitely a group effort.”

Kuchefski, Amherst’s most consistent scorer this year and a Wellesley, Mass., native, led the women as the lone player in the field to break 80. She did it twice, en route to capturing individual medalist honors by five strokes with a 78-77-155.

“I feel like I have been hitting the ball fairly consistently this season,” said Kuchefski. “This weekend, the course set up well for my game-I am a short hitter and rely on getting the ball up and down to score.”

Three of the top five golfers in the tournament were Amherst women. Emily Foran ’05 (86-84-170) placed fourth, just ahead of junior captain Meg Sullivan, who rounded out the top five at 88-84-172. Rookie Sarah Harper shot 86-89-175 to tie for ninth place, her best collegiate finish to date.

This performance made it two sweeps in a row for the Jeffs at Nehoiden Golf Course. Last year, they held off Wellesley by six strokes as Katie Gravel ’03 finished as a medalist.

Primarily responsible for Amherst’s lopsided margin of victory, Sullivan said, were the course layout and the Jeffs’ consistent play from top to bottom. “[The course] was pretty short and had very small greens, so people like Kathryn who have good iron games fared well on it,” she said.  “But other than that it was just a case of everyone having pretty stable scores and four out of our five players breaking 90 both days.”

The women conclude their fall season next weekend at Central Connecticut University. On a course they have never played before, against some Div. III teams and smaller Div. I squads, the Jeffs will look for a repeat of this weekend’s consistency.