Princeton overcomes fear to win seventh Ivy title
RINGOES » After the first round of the Ivy League Women’s Golf Championship, eventual winner Princeton University trailed both Columbia and fear.
Tigers coach Erika Desanty may have begrudgingly accepted losing to the Lions, Yale, Penn, Harvard or Dartmouth. But fear? No way in the world.
So, Desanty assembled her team on the pitch near The Ridge at Back Brook GC’s No. 10 Tee and talked about fear of winning, achievement and enjoying life as favorites.
“We talked about what our real fears were. I mean, coming in, it was almost like we had to win. I think that being in that position put pressure on our players,” Desanty explained.
“Maybe we feared putting or approach shots, whatever. But we left all of that fear.”
Desanty, enjoying her eighth season and third Ivy League title, plus an incredibly successful season with three victories and several top-5 finishes, offered a simplistic game plan for the final two rounds — “Just play golf!”
The Tigers played and prowled The Ridge at Back Brook GC, then began a slow comeback against Columbia which held a fourshot first round lead.
Princeton cut the disadvantage in half after Saturday’s round, then eked out a victory over determined Columbia. Princeton scored 892 while Columbia showed 895. Harvard finished third with 900 while Dartmouth and Yale tied at 902. Penn finished sixth with 922.
Tigers freshman Victoria
Liu earned medalist honors with an even-par 216 (71-72-73), five strokes in front of Columbia’s Jennifer Wang. Liu became Princeton’s 11th Ivy League individual champion since the tournament began in 1997 and first since Amber Wang ’19 in 2017.
Liu is the second Princeton player to win medalist honors as a freshman, along with Avery Kiser ’05 in 2002. The splendid left hander stayed atop the leaderboard throughout.
“I’ve been in the lead position before and both won and lost. It’s something I’ve spoken to (Desanty) about,” admitted Liu.
“In this last round, I just focused on playing golf for the team, not as an individual.”
Still, the Vancouver native topped the leaderboard while studying for exams in mathematics and computer science. Her winning performance included a memorable second-round eagle-3 on Hole No. 18.
Even that highlight faced a challenge as Columbia’s Jennifer Wang followed Liu’s eagle with her own.
Liu drained a 12-foot birdie putt there on Sunday, a roll that produced a Tigers celebration that bathed teammates in bottled water.
Junior Tiffany Kong, also from Vancouver, joined the baptismal after a close encounter with disappointment. The Tigers’ top player posted an opening-round 81, then had her score discarded in a tournament that scores the top four of five performances.
“That wasn’t my best round, but I knew my teammates would come through. I have complete confidence in them,” Kong assured.
Kong admitted a kind self-talk session.
“Just needed to pull myself together. Golf is hard and everyone has a bad day. I know my game, I can play. Just changed my mindset — played for my team.”
Kong closed with rounds of 76 and 75, scores crucial to the Tigers’ rally from chasers of Columbia to Ivy League champions. The Tigers held five of the top24 scores with Liu and Kong, plus seventh-place Yu
Kyung Kim (75-73-75-223), Kyung Eun Lee (77-71-77225) in 10th, and Grace Ni (77-77-79-233) tied for 24th.
The Princeton 2022 title joins those won in 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2017 and 2018. With the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 events, Princeton has won three of the last four Ivy championships awarded.
With the Ivy championship, Princeton has the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA regionals, to be held May 9-11.
The six regional site hosts are Stanford, Vanderbilt, New Mexico, Michigan, Oklahoma State and Florida State. The regional assignments will be announced on Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET on the Golf Channel.
No more being afraid of long shadows or success any longer as Desanty and her fearless Tigers await a NCAA berth.
“Does this make the season feel complete? Absolutely,” Desanty said. “This is a great group of young women. Anything we can accomplish in the NCAAs will be remarkable.”