The men's golf team fought through a weekend plagued by wind and rain to place sixth in the Century Intercollegiate at the par-71 Century Country Club with a two-round score of 628.
The team was outpaced by all of the other Ivies except Cornell Saturday. But the Bears finished ahead of both Ivy favorites Dartmouth and Yale Sunday.
"To beat Dartmouth and Yale in (Sunday's) round was big - it showed toughness on our part," said captain J.D. Ardell '13. "It showed we can play with those guys."
"It was good to see us perform well," said Head Coach Michael Hughes. "Once again, we had problems at the beginning and the end of rounds, but that's a result of being a young team."
The team's low score Sunday was in large part due to the brilliant round Justin Miller '15 completed in the difficult conditions. Miller's 72 was the lowest round of the weekend for the team, and his two-round 148 was good enough to earn him fourth overall individually.
"(Sunday's) conditions were brutal," Miller said. "It was nice that I could maintain my play and build some momentum."
Brown was also buoyed by the phenomenal play of newcomer Nelson Hargrove '13.5, who ranked twelfth individually for the tournament with a score of 155.
"I think it was great to have an amazing tournament from Justin and Nelson," Ardell said.
Ardell followed up with a 161 for the weekend, while Peter Callas '14 and Jon Greb '15 both carded 167.
Though the team showed flashes of great play, the main tournament of the season still has yet to be played. Bruno will participate next weekend in the Ivy League Golf Championship in Absecon, N.J. The tournament - to be played at the Galloway National Golf Club - not only determines the winner of the Ivy League, but guarantees the conference champion a spot in the upcoming NCAA golf championship. Brown will look to improve over its performance last year, when the team placed seventh after the weekend of play, edging out only Cornell of its Ivy competitors.
"I like our chances - if nothing else, the last couple of weeks we've proven to everyone that we can play and win next week," Miller said.
"Everyone is playing well. We just need to piece our games together and avoid any big pitfalls," Ardell said. "If we have three or four solid rounds from people this weekend, we can make an impact."
