Rain or shine, Bulldogs are the league's best

By Matt Matros

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Natalie Wong, MC '98, finished first at the Ivy League Championships last week.

Natalie Wong, MC '98, Chawwadee Rompothong, TC '00, and Annie Roller, ES '01, were playing golf at the Starr Path Country Club in Tuscon, Ariz. when it started to rain. It was spring break and the Yale women's golf team was preparing for its spring season. "It was such a beautiful golf course, we decided to stay out and play," Rompothong said. Weeks later, at the Yale Golf Course, the three women again were playing together during a practice round--and again the skies opened up. While the coincidence was reason enough for the threesome to stay on the course, the dedicated group of golfers does not often find excuses to leave. "When it rains, they don't come in," head coach Heather Daly-Donofrio, BK '91, said.

On Fri., Apr. 17, there was a steady, heavy rain in Bethpage, NY at the Ivy League Championships. During her round, Wong mentioned to Daly-Donofrio that it was just like those rain-soaked rounds she had played in Tuscon and at Yale. "It rained so hard on Friday, all our equipment, all our clothes were completely soaked," Wong said. Wong, the team captain, shot a two-over-par 73 on Bethpage State Park's Green course, four shots better than any other golfer in the field--and she attributes her success to her wet outings with Rompothong and Roller.

Wong's two-day score of 154 (first overall) led the Bulldogs to a first-place team finish, as the women defeated rival Princeton by just one stroke. The victory was a result of an inspired effort from the entire Yale squad, but especially the seniors. Charity Barras, MC '98, who, along with Wong, earned All-Ivy recognition for the second consecutive year, finished tied for second overall with a two-day score of 157.

But the final outcome might have been determined by Margret Bell, MC '98. Bell shot an 88 in the rain on Friday, and her score did not count toward the team's total (the highest individual score of each round is not counted). Yale needed Bell to rebound with a strong effort on Saturday, as the team was tied with Princeton entering the final round. "We didn't make any mechanical adjustments [in Bell's game], we talked about how she wanted to approach the game mentally," Daly-Donofrio said.

Bell, who Daly-Donofrio praised as the "hardest worker on the team," fired a 77 in the second-round, the second-lowest score in the field. "She surprised Princeton; their coach told [Yale Athletic Director] Tom Beckett that [Bell] won it for Yale," Wong said. Bell, who broke 80 for only the second time in her career, picked the perfect moment to do so in what Daly-Donofrio called "a gutsy performance." Her two-day score of 165 landed her All-Ivy recognition.

Barras, Bell, and Wong, along with teammate Ilona Paulin, TD '98, have earned accolades from their coach. "My seniors are the backbone of our team. They deserve everything they've accomplished," Daly-Donofrio said. The coach had especially high praise for Wong, who is in her third year as team captain, an extraordinary feat for any athlete at any university. "She's a tremendous individual and a fabulous all-around player. Everybody looks to her for guidance. She brought the golf program to a new level," Daly-Donofrio said. "Without her low scores, and Charity's, we wouldn't be winning the tournaments we're winning."

After finishing sixth in a field of 12 talented teams at the Campbell Classic in North Carolina, the victory at Bethpage proved to be a payoff for the team's work in Arizona over spring break. "We played some of the best courses in Tuscon, and the team worked extremely hard," Daly-Donofrio said. Last year, the Bulldogs won the Ivy League Championships by 38 shots. Although the women bested last year's score (655) by eight shots, Princeton's squad has also improved since then. "[Princeton] beat us in almost every tournament in the fall," Wong said. "We just didn't pull it together, and we finally did at Ivies."

The Bulldogs will get one last chance to defeat Princeton, in the Northeast Regionals in Amherst, Mass., this Sat., Apr. 25 and Sun., Apr. 26. While Daly-Donofrio expressed some concern about a letdown after the Ivies, she is confident that her team remains focused. "We want to prove that we can beat [Princeton] by a lot," Wong said. She might be in luck--it's supposed to rain this weekend.

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