First win leads Tiger men’s golf to Ivy League championship
By: Justin Feil
Creighton Page recorded the lowest score in an Ivy League Championship and led the Princeton University men’s golf team to an Ivy record three-round total 862, 20 strokes better than the previous record Sunday at Ballyowen Golf Club in Hamburg, N.J. That enabled the Tigers to win their second straight Ivy title and fifth in six years.
In the process, the Princeton senior exorcised two demons.
"I shot a million last year," said Page, who shot six-under 210, the only player in the field to break par for the tournament. "I shot a ton last year. It was really bad.
"Obviously, it’s good to win," he added. "I had not won a college tournament yet to this point. Four years of competitive golf without winning, it makes you feel like you’ve forgotten how to win. It’s good to get that feeling back. It makes me more confident heading into Penn State and NCAAs this year."
Page and the Tigers will compete in the Rutherford Intercollegiate at Penn State this weekend, then go almost three weeks before competing in the NCAA Regionals.
"Last year we had a month between Ivies and NCAAs," said Page, a captain this year. "You kind of lose that competitive edge. When Will (Green, PU head coach) was talking with me about setting this spring’s schedule, we figured (playing) this would be a good move to help keep us prepared. We have to make sure we don’t have a drop-off."
Page will be making a third trip to the NCAAs in his career. As a freshman, he came off a second-place finish in the Ivy League Championship to finish tops for the Tigers at the NCAA Regionals, 75th overall. He and the Tigers are shooting for a better finish this year.
"This team has as good a chance as any I’ve been on in four years," Page said. "We have a lot of talent on this five-man team. All five guys are playing well right now. The way Jesse (Dixon) and Brent (Herlihy) have come around the last couple of weeks and put up strong scores has made all the difference. In the past, we haven’t been able to rely on four solid scores. Now we can really rely on all five guys putting up solid scores. It makes a huge difference.
"In the past, we’ve gone to NCAA Regionals and gotten killed every year," he added. "There are different expectations this year, that’s for sure. Since it looks like we could qualify out of districts, it means we’ll be a higher seed when we go to regionals. Along with that, comes higher expectations. We want to go in there and be competitive and contend for one of the 10 spots that makes it to finals."
Princeton was 25th at the NCAA Regionals three years ago and 26th last year. Page shot the low round of any Tiger, 80, last year to finish as second-best on the team. Page has always been capable of low scores, but now they’re coming more often without the high scores that used to accompany them at times earlier in his career. The Ivy title was a perfect example of his newfound consistency.
"I don’t make as many mistakes," said the Louisville, Ky. resident. "That’s what did it for me this last weekend at Ivies. I didn’t make that many birdies. I didn’t make many mistakes. Everybody else on my team had more birdies. I just made three bogeys. The key is cutting out big scores.
"It’s radically different from what my game used to be. I used to be volatile. I’d have a lot of birdies, but also a lot of bogeys. I used to have more volatility in my scores."
He has made himself more consistent as have the Tigers. They came off a narrow defeat at the Princeton Invitational to take the Ivy championship by an astounding 31 strokes. It was their 18th title in the 31-year history of play.
"We certainly felt confident despite the fact we did lose by one at our tournament," Page said. "We beat a lot of teams we needed to beat. We have to approach Ivies as a must-win situation in order to make sure we get an NCAA bid. It’s kind of the culmination of our season. If there’s anything we want to win, it’s that tournament. I think we came into that weekend and executed with the right attitude."
Princeton led by 14 strokes halfway through the tournament and stretched the lead on the second day.
"Honestly, we kind of expected to win Ivies by a lot," Page said. "Especially this year, there are more teams that are pretty good. There aren’t really any other that are very good. In the past, Penn and Yale have put together some very strong teams that have challenged us. There weren’t any other very strong teams in the league this year.
"Our first day, we had a 14-shot advantage. We felt like we played pretty well. After the round, guys were somewhat surprised that it wasn’t a bigger lead. Will told us not to protect the lead. We wanted to double it. We did."
Page led the way as the Tigers put three players in the Top 7. Jason Gerken, who won last year, tied for second place, six strokes behind Page. John Sawin tied for fourth at two-over par. Dixon gave Princeton a fourth player in the Top 10 and Herlihy finished 16th.
"Will always says his goal is to have all five win All-Ivy," Page said. "We had three out of seven, so that was pretty good."

