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Kicking off the spring season, Harvard women’s golf traveled south to escape the New England cold in its opening match of 2018 in South Carolina. The Crimson was unable to recover from its tough start and finished last in a competitive field of 15.

The Clemson Invitational featured a whopping five teams ranked in the top 25 in the NCAA, with the victory going to Furman. The Paladins shot an impressive 30 under par—10 strokes ahead of second-place Michigan State—and registered a weekend-best 273 in the second round of the tournament.

Harvard fell behind the stiff competition early, registering a 307 in the opening round of the invitational. Although unable to climb up in the leaderboard following the first day of the competition, the Crimson improved throughout the weekend, scoring a 305 and a 301 in the second and third rounds, respectively.

Junior Anna Zhou was the top finisher for Harvard at tied for 57th, shooting 10 over par on the weekend. Zhou started the tournament on a strong note, shooting even on her first nine holes of the contest. Zhou consistently kept up her solid play, finishing at three over par, three over par, and four over par in each of her rounds.

Sophomore Chloe Belle Hooton made her first appearance of the Crimson’s 2017-2018 campaign in the spring opener at Clemson.

Following a tough start with a pair of six over par scores in the first round and a seven over par to begin the second day, Hooton settled in nicely to finish out her second round even par on the second half of the day. On Sunday, Hooton came out firing, riding a trio of birdies to shoot only one over par on the day, one of only two Harvard golfers to shoot one over par on an entire round. Hooton shot one under par on the first half of her Sunday round, the best finish on the back nine for a Crimson golfer and the best third round for the team.

The other one over par round in the tournament belonged to junior Michelle Xie with Saturday’s second round. Xie’s stellar round included shooting two under par on the front nine, the best nine-hole score for Harvard.

The second round was sandwiched in between an up-and-down weekend for Xie. The roller coaster of a weekend saw intense highs, such as starting the tournament with a string of eight straight pars sparked by an early birdie, and tough lows, including a twelve over par final round. However, Xie and Hooton led their squad with seven birdies each.

Although the Crimson finished at the bottom of the crowded field of competitors, it looks to use the Clemson Invitational as the 2018 opener to get ready to jump right into the all-important spring season.

Following the end of a five year tenure as the champions of the Ivy League, Harvard hopes to finish atop the Ancient Eight come April and avenge its loss to the reigning champions, Princeton.

Before competing for the conference championship, Harvard will host its Harvard Invitational in Florida in its last match before attempting to reclaim the league title.

—Staff writer Joseph Minatel can be reached at joseph.minatel@thecrimson.com.