Minnesota Golf: Great Gopher Weekend on the Links!

Both the Minnesota Gophers men’s and women’s golf teams were in action this past weekend and both had some fantastic performances. The Gopher men won their first tournament since April of 2021 at the MacDonald Cup in New Haven, Connecticut, while the women had a new single round record set by Luisamariana Mesones at the Lady Paladin Invitational in South Carolina.

The Gopher men headed to the MacDonald Cup hosted by Yale at the Yale University Golf Course. Minnesota joined several Ivy league schools in the field along with fellow Big Ten foe Michigan. After the first two rounds on Friday and Saturday the Gophers led Harvard by two shots. Minnesota got off to a bit of a rough start on Friday shooting +11 as a team, but had a huge recovery day on Saturday as they went -10 as a team and moved into the lead. Jack Wetzel le the way with a -4 66, while Ben Warian and Lincoln Johnson shot a pair of 67s to help Minnesota back into the lead.

On Sunday Minnesota shot +1 as a team but it would be enough to hold off the Crimson who shot the same score as Minnesota would win by two strokes. Warian would match his 67 from Saturday in the final round to finish the tournament at -4, good enough for a tie for third place individually. It’s the Gophers first team win since the Get R Done Invitational hosted by Nebraska in April of 2021.

Minnesota is back in action next weekend at the Marquette Collegiate held next Sunday and Monday at the Milwaukee Country Club.

The Gopher women were in South Carolina for the Lady Paladin Invitational hosted by Wofford. As a team the Gophers finished in sixth place with a score of +23 over the tree round tournament.

The highlight was the performance put on by Minnesota freshman Lusamariana Mesones. The native of Trujillo, Peru set a Minnesota record with a -8 64 on Sunday lofting her to second place in the tournament, just one shot behind the winner. Not only was her score a new Minnesota single round record, but she set the course record as well at the Furman University Golf Course.

The Gopher women are back in action quickly as they head to Virginia Beach, Virginia for the three round Princess Anne Invitational this weekend hosted by Old Dominion.