Fresh off a spring break trip to Georgia and South Carolina, the Harvard men’s golf team headed back south this weekend, participating in the Furman Intercollegiate in Greenville, S.C. After 72 holes of play over two days, the Crimson came away with a second-place finish.

“It was really important this weekend to see the improvements we had been working on from last week start to settle in,” Harvard coach Kevin Rhoads said. “The result that we did was really nice confirmation that we are working on the correct things. I am very proud of the guys this week.”

Harvard completed the three rounds at a minus-8 856, 15 strokes behind Georgia State (841) for the title. The course played at a par 72. The Crimson sat in first place after round one on Friday with a score of 284 (-4), and continued to play well on Saturday, turning in a competitive score of 280 (-8).

Georgia State turned in an impressive 13-under 275 on Saturday, inching the Panthers ahead of the Crimson on the leaderboard. This competitive round two was led by Maximilian Herrmann and Sam Asbury of Georgia State, receiving three under-par performances on the first three holes.

Captain Rohan Ramnath and junior Robert Deng steadily led the way for Harvard and finished in second and fifth place, respectively, at the conclusion to the first two rounds. Ramnath shot a seven-under 209, while Deng’s 210 put him six strokes below par. Firing round scores of 69 and 66 put Ramnath at minus-9, finishing only one stroke behind Ryan Cornfield of USC Upstate (134) at the end of the day on Saturday.

“I drove the ball really well and that simplified the game. In general and on this course especially, some of the tee shots are really tight and I hit the driver really well,” Ramnath said. I played smart off the tee even when I did miss, contributing to the good score on Saturday,”

Following a round three score of plus-2, Ramnath ended the tournament with a fourth place finish.

Deng also posted scores of 70, 68, and 72, supporting Harvard’s effort by coming in at eighth place on the player leaderboard.

Sophomore Greg Royston (E, 216) and freshman Seiya Liu (+3,147) also played well, placing 21st and 64th, respectively, out of a field of 115 individual players and 19 schools.

After a strong early showing that placed him in 18th at the conclusion of the first round, Royston dropped position slightly in the second round with a stroke score of 73. This one-over-par round caused him to fall incrementally to 27th in the field. A strong finish in the third round on Sunday propelled Royston back up to the 21st slot overall.

Liu also remained steady throughout the tournament with scores of 74, 73, and 76. Junior Daniel De La Garza rounded out the Crimson squad, finishing 71st at a plus-8.

The Crimson concluded the tournament in second, maintaining its position in the team rankings after a 292 (+4) third round on Sunday.

“The unifying commonality was our approach to what we were doing,” Rhoads said. “This weekend we really looked to be organized in every shot, to know exactly what each player was expecting to do and trusting in their ability to do it.”

Harvard returns to the green after a one-week hiatus at the Princeton Invitational, a 54-hole tournament at Springdale Golf Club in Princeton, N.J in two weekends.

“We were playing against a lot of teams that have been practicing all winter and so our goals have always been to focus on ourselves. We just wanted to come in here and show our confidence, play the best we could, and progress towards the postseason for Ivy’s which is really important to us,” Rhoads said. “This was a good tournament to build confidence in going into the season.”