The golf team travels to Philadelphia, Penn., this weekend to play in the annual Big Five Invitational, hosted by UPenn. The Red had a less-than-stellar performance at the tournament last year, placing 13th overall, but won the tournament two seasons ago. Though only three members of the team remain from the team that won, the Red has a heightened sense of expectation heading into the weekend.

Senior Robert Cronheim, juniors Dan Bosse, Matt Jaye and Larry Heymont and sophomore Mark Baity will make up the squad for the Red in Philadelphia.

“We haven’t been performing as well as we would have liked up to this point,” Bosse said. “We’ve gone through a lot of lineup searching with more qualifying rounds to see who should travel. We’re hoping that the five guys we bring this weekend can help steady the ship and give us some consistency.”

The Red has had two full weeks to prepare for the Big Five after placing fifth at the rain-shortened Cornell Invitational at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Course.

“Two weeks is definitely a long time,” said junior Ben Myer. “It really gives everybody a chance to work on their own individual games. It’s like our ‘bye week’ –– it allows everybody to regain everything in the middle of the season.”

A major factor affecting the team that it has no control over is the weather. As the temperature drops down into the 50s and even 40s, the course conditions change drastically. Greens harden up and become faster, and distances off of the tee box decrease.

“As it gets colder the conditions do worsen,” Bosse said. “But it’s the same for everybody; you just have to build it into your game plan. Balls are not going to go as far; hitting solid shots is a lot more important. When it is warmer out a mishot often turns out much better than it does when it’s cold out.”

This season the Red has shown flashes of the individual talent it possesses, but has yet to show off all of that talent in the same tournament. Overall, the Red is confident in its abilities as a unit, and is eager to string consistently good rounds together.

“So far we haven’t played up to our potential,” Bosse said. “But we feel like if we do, we can definitely go out there and compete and have a chance to win. Right now our goal is to put two solid rounds together, get our confidence up and go from there.”