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The men’s and women’s golf teams, which may have put in some hours of practice in their garage, had busy weekends as both squads ramped up their seasons. 

During the weekend of Sept. 10, the women’s team hosted the Yale Invitational at the Yale Golf Course and placed fifth in a field of 15. The team as a whole hit at 22 over par for a total score of 874, finishing 26 strokes behind tournament winner and Ancient Eight rival Harvard. Rookie Ashley Yen ’26 earned the Bulldogs’ best finish by tying for seventh with an even score of 213.

“It’s always so fun to have our home tournament and there was great support from our family, friends, and the Yale community,” Alexis Kim ’25 said. “I am happy with how I played this weekend, especially with my putting and approach shots and having that support while I was competing means a lot.”

Kim and squadmate Kaitlyn Lee ’23 tied for ninth place with a score of 215, or two over par. Lee echoed the sentiment of “overwhelming support” coming from “teammates, coaches, friends and family.”

This tournament marks the final Yale Invitational for seniors Lee, Coco Chai ’23 and Ami Gianchandani ’23. Gianchandani, who is also captain of the squad, tied with rookie Mia Sessa ’26 for a 19th place finish with a score of 220.

“It was a disappointing weekend not finishing at the top in our home tournament, but we have many more tournaments to look forward to this fall and spring,” Gianchandani said. 

As a team, the Blue and White had the third-highest number of pars with 169 throughout the tournament. The Bulldogs also hit 41 birdies, the fourth-most throughout the tournament. 

Chai tied with Harvard’s Meiyi Yan for the most pars hit by an individual player throughout the tournament by earning 41 across 54 holes. Sessa earned the second-most birdies tournament-wide with 13.

“There were [a] lot of positives and takeaways from this tournament and I’m excited to build upon them the rest of this season,” Lee said. 

During the same weekend, the men’s team traveled to Independence, Minnesota to play the Gopher Invitational. Lasting Sunday through Monday, the Bulldogs finished tenth in a field of fifteen with a score of 850, or two under par. Junior Gabriel Ruiz Trevino ’24 earned the Blue and White’s best finish by tying for fourth with a score of 207, or six under par.

“[I’m] very happy with my performance this weekend and also very happy that I was able to do it at one of the best tournaments we play all year,” Ruiz said. “It was a very strong field so it really says a lot about where we are as a team.”

The Blue and White began the tournament in fourth-place during the first round by hitting five under par, or 279. In the next round, the Bulldogs dropped to tenth by hitting 287 and were unable to climb higher in the third round.

Ruiz tied for the best individual par-four average by hitting 3.85 while the team as a whole had the second-best par-five average in the field by hitting 4.71.

“Everyone played well and the team still finished under par,” captain Kevin Wu ’23 said. “We were one shot shy of tying Notre Dame, which is another top 25 program in the country right now, so it was definitely a good week for us. We have a lot of momentum going into the second part of the season.” 

The women’s team will travel to New Jersey to play their next tournament at the Princeton Invitational during the weekend of Sept. 21. For their next competition, the men’s team will defend their MacDonald Cup title at home during the same weekend.