Birdie-Filled Day Has Big Green Three Strokes Back

Saturday, April 8

Sarasota, Fla. / The Oaks Golf Club

8:30 AM

Dartmouth College

Harvard Invitational

Sophie Thai lines up a putt at the Ivy Intercollegiate, Oct. 10, 2022

Freshman Sophie Thai keeps setting program records

Photo by: Sideline Photos

Birdie-Filled Day Has Big Green Three Strokes Back

4/8/2023 9:18:00 PM | Women's Golf

Results (PDF)

Sophie Thai sank seven of the team’s 26 birdies and is tied for second entering the final round

By: Rick Bender

OSPREY, Fla. — Freshman Sophie Thai sank seven of Dartmouth's 26 birdies over the first two rounds of the Harvard Invitational on Saturday, helping the Big Green women's golf team wrap up the day in second place with an 11-over 587, just three strokes off the pace set by Lynn University while setting a program record for best two-round total in relation to par. Dartmouth matched host Harvard and Princeton for the most birdies on the day, finishing one and four strokes ahead of its Ivy competition, respectively.

Those 26 birdies also pushed the Big Green's season total to 203, breaking the program record of 193 set six years ago.

"I'm proud of everyone on the team," said Alex Kirk, the Carolyn A. Pelzel '54a Head Coach of Women's Golf. "They just kept playing the next shot and never quit fighting. Leading the field in birdies and adding an eagle really helps your scoring. It was really a solid day overall, which puts us in good position to compete tomorrow."

Thai had her game going strong in the opening round on the 6,080-yard, par-72 course at The Oaks Club, tying the program record with a first round at 3-under par that featured five birdies. Starting her day on the back nine, she immediately sent notice to the field with birdies on 10 and 11, then reached the turn at 1-under. On the front nine, she was even better with two more birdies and seven pars to end the round tied for second in the 47-player field. In the afternoon, Thai added two more birdies to her total while carding a 2-over 74, maintaining her position in second place, tied with Katharina Hesse of Rollins College at 1-under.

Next on the leaderboard for the Big Green was junior Katherine Sung, who shot 75-73—148 (+4), leaving her tied for 14th. She provided five birdies as well as an eagle, her fourth of the year and fifth of her career, both program records. Her two rounds were quite different as she was quite consistent over her first 18 with 13 pars and a birdie before her second 18 that featured plenty of highs and lows with four birdies, her eagle, seven pars, five bogeys and a double bogey.

Speaking of consistency, senior Samantha Yao had 28 pars over her 36 holes with a pair of birdies to card a 75-74—149 (+5), tying her for 17th. Sophomore Claire Xu was among the other five golfers to shoot 5-over for the two rounds, dropping six birdies on her first tour of the course — including five on her last seven holes — before making par on 14 of the last 18 holes to shoot 73-76—149.

Freshman Kim Shen contributed to the team score in the first round with a 73 (+1) with three birdies to her credit. But she found some trouble on her second tour and fell back 18 spots on the leaderboard into a tie for 27th at 8-over par (152).

Coach Kirk would have liked to the second round posted by Penelope Tir — playing as an individual — to go toward the team score. The junior matched Thai's first round with a 3-under 69 that included three birdies and an eagle of her own, lifting her into a tie for sixth at 1-over par (145).

Lynn's Maria Hoyos will take a five-stroke lead into tomorrow after carding consecutive 69s to sit at 6-under par.

The third and final round will be a shotgun start that begins tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m.

Notes: Thai has 46 birdies this season, second most in Big Green history behind only Sung's 60 from last year … Dartmouth as a team has averaged 300.8 over 17 rounds this year, more than six strokes better than any previous season … Thai is the first golfer in program history to finish two rounds under par twice in a career with her performance today; she shot a program-record 141 (-3) over the first two rounds of the Lady Blue Hen Invitational that she went on to win back in October … the team's 290 in the first round was one stroke off the single-round record for the Big Green, which was set in their last tournament, but it was a team record in relation to par (+2).