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During Masters week, the Yale men’s and women’s golf teams headed south, but stopped in Maryland and New Jersey instead of Augusta National.

The women’s golf team traveled to Rockville, Maryland and placed fifth at the Hoya Invitational, hosted by Georgetown, and played from Saturday, April 9 through Sunday, April 10. Amidst harsh weather, three Bulldogs — Ami Gianchandani ’23, Kaitlyn Lee ’23 and Coco Chai ’23 — placed in the top 15 as the team finished with a score of 929, or 65 over par. On the same dates, the men’s golf team earned sixth at the Princeton Invitational with a score of 860, or eight over par. Rookie Blake Brantley ’25 had the Bulldogs’ best showing by tying for fifth with a score of 212, or one under par. 

“Everyone on this team showed a lot of toughness playing in harsh conditions this weekend,” women’s team captain Gianchandani said. “This was some of the coldest and windiest weather we have played in but were still able to post some good scores and make a charge on the last day. Now, it is all about the Ivy Championship.”

Gianchandani had the Bulldogs’ best result of the tournament as she tied for third place with a final score of 225, or nine over par. Lee joined her classmate in the top 10 by tying for sixth with a score of 228 and Chai, competing as an individual, tied for 13th with a score of 232. Rookie Lexi Kim ’25 tied for 30th with a score of 237, followed by 37th place Ashley Au ’23, who earned a score of 239. 

“I am so excited to be here,” Rookie Sophie Simon ’25 wrote to the News during the tournament. “I know this tournament will be so well run and the course is in great shape.”

Simon, who considers the course to be her “home course” as a Maryland native, noted that this tournament was an event that she looked forward to at the beginning of the season and anticipated “having family and friends come out to support the team.” 

Despite difficult weather, the Bulldogs held their own as the team finished with the best overall par-four average with a statistic of 4.29. Gianchandani and Lee finished first and second in this statistic by averaging 4.07 and 4.10, respectively. Gianchandani scored 37 pars to tie with competitors from Boston University, Harvard and Princeton for the most pars scored. Meanwhile, Lee hit seven birdies to tie with two competitors from Quinnipiac as Chai scored six. The Bulldogs also earned the second-most pars by scoring 160, just three behind Ancient Eight rival Harvard. 

During the same weekend, the men’s team faced off against 14 other squads at the Springdale Golf Course in New Jersey. Starting off in 12th place, the Bulldogs finished the tournament at sixth, ahead of seventh-place Dartmouth, 12th-place Cornell, 13th-place Harvard, 14th-place Pennsylvania and 15th-place Brown.

“I’m happy with how our team fought back with some lower scores after a slow start to the tournament,” Darren Lin ’22 said. 

After Brantley, Lin had the second-best finish for the Bulldogs as he tied for 24th place with a score of 216, or three over par. Rounding out the Bulldogs’ squad, Gabriel Ruiz ’23 tied for 37th place by scoring 219, Robert You ’25 tied for 41st with a score of 221, Sho Wai Wu ’23 tied for 51st with a score of 223 and Teddy Zinsner ’22 tied for 59th with a score of 225. 

The Blue and White earned the second-most pars with 175, two fewer than Temple. Lin tied with competitors from Temple and Harvard to hit the most pars with 41 scored throughout the competition. Ruiz and Brantley hit 39 and 37, respectively. 

“It was good to be in Princeton,” Ruiz wrote. “[We’re] another week closer to the Ivy Championship. We did not play out best but we are optimistic about the coming weeks.”

The men’s squad will next compete at home in the Yale Invitational on Saturday, April 16. Both the men’s and women’s squads will play their Ivy League Championship events during the weekend of April 18.