Alex Cleveland ’18 has been on the golf team for 4 years.
Andover Varsity Golf placed seventh out of eight teams in the Andover Invitational this past Saturday at the Newport Country Club’s nationally-recognized course in Newport, RI.
Andover sent Captain John Witt ’18, Harry Choi ’19, Yeetang Kwok ’20, Nithish Kalpat ’18, and Derrick Brown ’20, their first to fifth seeds respectively, to the “stroke play formatted” invitational. This means that players are competing for the least number of strokes rather than by number of holes won.
The five players from each team played 18 holes each, recording the total number of strokes per person. The top four players – the four players with the lowest scores – were added up and a total was calculated for each team. In Andover’s total score of 329, Witt scored 79, Kwok scored 81, Choi scored 85, and Brown scored 85. Andover was 29 strokes above Deerfield, the first place team that took a total of 303 strokes.
Kwok said, “The course lived up to its reputation as being one of the best courses in New England. The greens were rolling very fast and true.”
As strong wind and fog from the ocean came together with the bright skies, the team had difficulty hitting the best that they could, according to Witt.
Witt said, “Sometimes it was difficult to see 100 yards ahead. The wind was pretty strong, especially for the part of the course that is near the ocean. Fog and sun alternated throughout the round.”
Windy conditions were a factor in the loss, according to Kwok and Kalpat.
“I think we can improve by learning how to handle windy conditions better,” said Kwok.
“We were forced to play a lot of low shots to keep them out of the wind,” added Kalpat. “We placed seventh out of eight teams, so it wasn’t exactly the finish we were looking for. None of us played particularly well for our standards, so we know we could have placed higher. I know we’re capable of winning this match, so I think it’s just a matter of everyone coming to play and playing their best golf.”
Going into its matchup against Dexter Southfield, Andover looks to work on more consistent results on its home course this Friday, according to Witt.
“[We could] be more consistent. Many of the players at Newport made big numbers, triples and doubles, myself included, so a goal is to minimize risk,” said Witt.
