Even as underdogs, Penn golf has real momentum heading into the Ivy League championships

After this weekend, Penn men’s golf will have competed in nine tournaments this season, nearly all within driving range from Philadelphia.

Except for one: the Watersound Invitational, a February tournament in Panama City, Fla. Awaiting the Quakers in the Sunshine State was a field that featured top-25 teams from the Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, and other Power 5 conference schools.

Those schools have all the advantages, compared to Penn: They’re able to practice 10 to 20 more hours per week, and their courses are 10 to 15 minutes from campus. Penn must travel 45 to 50 minutes from University City.

So why would Penn subject itself such tough competition?

“I think them seeing that caliber of player is important and just understanding that level of golf, it’s attainable,” said Penn coach Clay White.

Penn finished 12th out of the 12 competing teams. The Quakers struggled on the first two days of the tournament, but after adjusting to the type of grass on the Florida course on the third day, the team shot a cumulative 295 — ahead of North Carolina State and just one stroke behind Clemson.

“It shows that they can compete with those guys, maybe not for three rounds, but for one round they hung in there, and I think that’s super important for kids to understand,” White said.

At Penn’s next tournament a month later — an 18-team skirmish at Iona — White’s squad led after the first day for the first time in his two seasons with the program.

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The Quakers finished in second place and have had two more solid tournament outings in the past couple of weeks, giving them some momentum entering this weekend’s Ivy League Championships in Watchung, N.J.

Two standouts have been freshman Max Fonseca and junior Ben Scott, who both finished 2 under par at Columbia last week. Fonseca, a Miami native, has been the only Penn player to finish no worse than 3 over par in his last three outings.

“I think he has a lot of potential,” White said of Fonseca. “He’s super young, and he’s very knowledgeable about the game, but there’s always more. He’s got to be wanting to learn more, and just how much can he absorb not just from me, but from his peers and from his competitors.”

Continual growth and learning is something that White emphasizes to all his players, but with the limited amount the team is able to practice, i that’s a much harder bargain. So White tries to push his squad to put in the extra effort when they can.

“If you just practice when the team practices, it’s probably not enough, because we don’t really practice enough as a team just because of the academics,” he said. “So you have to be willing and able to make time in between your classes to put in a little extra work here and there, and if you do that, we’re going to get a little better.”

In the past two seasons, Penn has finished fifth and sixth out of the seven teams playing in the Ivy League tournament. This year, White’s goal is not necessarily for Penn to be hoisting the trophy on Sunday, but for his players to give themselves a chance on the final day and see what can happen.

“Realistically, if we can learn how to give ourselves the opportunity to be there at the end, like that’s what we have to learn how to do before we can win,” White said. “And we’ve kind of done that this spring.”

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