Women’s Golf Opens Spring with First Round of Columbia Classic

Saturday, February 11

Melbourne, Fla. / Duran Golf Club

9:00 AM

Dartmouth College

Columbia Classic

Sophomore Claire Xu

Photo by: The Ivy League/Sideline Photos

Women’s Golf Opens Spring with First Round of Columbia Classic

2/11/2023 6:25:00 PM | Women's Golf

Results

Freshman Hope Hall led the Big Green over the first 18 holes

By: Rick Bender

MELBOURNE, Fla. — It may still be winter in New England, but the Dartmouth women's golf team migrated south to open up its spring schedule at the Columbia Classic on Saturday morning, ending the first round tied for ninth place in the 14-team field. Freshman Hope Hall led the Big Green over the first 18 holes by carding a 2-over 74, placing her in a tie for 18th overall.

"It is great to get the spring season going," said Alex Kirk, the Carolyn A. Pelzel '54a Head Coach of Women's Golf. "I think we played a bit better than our scores showed as our ball striking was good. We could have been a little better putting and we need to improve our scoring on the par-5 holes, but our best golf is in front of us."

Hall, who started her round on the ninth hole of the 6,357-yard, par-72 course at the Duran Golf Club, opened with a par before suffering a double bogey. She quickly recovered to birdie the 11th, her first of five on the day, including one on her final hole, offsetting five bogeys to end at 2-over par.

Hall was not the only freshman on the course for Dartmouth with four in the starting lineup, including Iris Cao making her collegiate debut. The rookie led the Big Green with 12 pars, plus added a birdie on the 376-yard, par-4 14th to conclude her round with a 77 (+5), putting her in a tie for 41st in the 80-player field.

Dartmouth's other three golfers — sophomore Claire Xu, and freshmen Sophie Thai and Kim Shen — each contributed a pair of birdies in their rounds with Shen tying for 51st at 7-over par. Both Xu and Thai were one stroke behind Shen with an 80 (+8) to tie for 54th.

Princeton had three of the five golfers that finished the day under par, including two of the three individual leaders in Yanjun Liu and Yu Kyung Kim, to take the lead at 6-under as a team. Texas Tech wrapped up four strokes back, and the other co-leader was Mathilda Delavallade. The other Ivy League squad in the field, Columbia, matched Dartmouth at 22-over par.

The second round will begin at 8 a.m. on Sunday with Xu the first one off the first tee.