Historic Round Lifts Women’s Golf to Second at Princeton Invitational

Sunday, September 17

Princeton, N.J. / Springdale Golf Club

9:00 AM

Dartmouth College

Princeton Invitational

Katherine Sung tied for medalist honors with a record-setting performance.

Historic Round Lifts Women’s Golf to Second at Princeton Invitational

9/17/2023 2:49:00 PM | Women's Golf

Final Results

With a 9-under 275, the Big Green shattered the previous record by 13 strokes

By: Rick Bender

PRINCETON, N.J. — Yesterday, the Dartmouth women's golf team put together a memorable second round at the Princeton Invitational, setting a program record with a 288 (+4). As it turns out, the Big Green were just getting started.

Dartmouth put together a tremendous final round at the Springdale Golf Club, tearing up the 6,109-yard, par-71 course with a 9-under 275 to shatter the team record by 13 strokes. The Big Green began the day in fifth place, but with their showing today were able to leap-frog over three Ivy schools to finish second only to Georgetown, closing the gap from 15 strokes to four by the end of the day with an 866 (+14).

Senior co-captain Katherine Sung was the ringleader of the historic performance, setting another program record with a 4-under 67 to climb into a three-way tie for medalist honors, carding a 71-73-67—211 (-2) for the tournament. Her 18 holes were bogey-free on the day with 14 pars and birdies on her opening hole, the par-5, 426-yard fourth, the sixth, 12th and 15th.

"I'm super proud of our team for continuing to put up a fight and for everyone's great play," Sung said following the tournament. "Springdale was in pristine condition and the weather was perfect. I was simply focusing on staying in the rhythm that I had going, trying not to get ahead of myself and focusing on one shot at a time. My ball-striking was great today, which helped me set up for a lot of close birdie looks, some of which went in and others that did not. I learned a lot this weekend and still have lots to work on, but I am happy with how things finished up for our first tournament of the season."

Sung wasn't the only Dartmouth golfer to finish the round a bogey-free round. Senior Penelope Tir started on the 147-yard, par-3 fifth and parred her first seven holes, then dropped birdies on 12, 14 and 16. The remainder of her round was filled with pars as she finished up 3-under (which tied the team's previous best single-round score), climbing 12 places on the leaderboard into a tie for fifth with a 77-71-68—216 (+3).

Then there was sophomore Sophie Thai, who also completed her round under par with a 69 (-2) and just one bogey on her ledger. She began with a birdie on the sixth hole, then added an eagle on the 413-yard, par-4 10th. Following that lone bogey on 11, she proceeded to par her final 12 holes and concluded the tournament in ninth at 4-over (79-69-69—217).

Sophomore Hope Hall contributed to the team score by shooting an even-par 71, though she got off to a bit of an uneven start. After four holes, she was sitting a 3-over for her round, then righted her ship with a birdie on 11. She ended up with a team-best five birdies to her credit on the day and ended up tied for 27th overall by shooting 79-75-71—225 (+12) for the tournament.

Georgetown was only able to fend off Dartmouth thanks to some late birdies to card the second-lowest round of the day with a 2-over 286. Harvard finished third, 11 strokes behind the Big Green and one ahead of Penn in fourth while host Princeton took fifth with a 884 (+32).

"The way were playing, I thought we were going to chase down Georgetown," said Alex Kirk, the Carolyn A. Pelzel '54 a Head Coach of Women's Golf. "It is a great feeling when our entire team has so many birdie opportunities and everyone is playing under control."

The two golfers to match Sung's final total were Boston University's Carolyn Chen, who began the day atop the leaderboard, and Princeton's Yanjun Liu who carded a 3-under 68 today.

Dartmouth will be back in action in two weeks for the Yale Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 30 and Sunday, Oct. 1.

Notes: Sung is just the second Big Green golfer to finish a 54-hole tournament under par; Thai was 6-under par in a tournament last year … the best previous Dartmouth team score in relation to par for a round was 2-over at the Harvard Invitational last year … the 866 is the lowest 54-hole team total by 14 strokes, and the 14-over par finish broke the program record by two strokes (accomplished on a par-72 course).