Men’s golf captured the NESCAC Championship this past weekend in East Haddam, Conn., securing their 14th conference title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships with a 13-stroke victory over the second-place Tufts Jumbos. The win marked the program’s first NESCAC title since 2017, with Nicky Smith ’29 securing an individual title at even par through three rounds, Jack Estrella ’28 placing second at 3-over, and Owen Nielsen ’27 tying for fifth.
Following their spring break trip to North Carolina, the Ephs have competed in tournaments every weekend, but have struggled to come away with a team victory. “In each of [the tournaments], we had good stretches of play where we were close to the lead, and we just couldn’t seem to put it all together and get a win,” Nielsen wrote in an email to the Record.
Despite the lack of spring team victories, the Ephs went into NESCACs hoping to earn their spot at NCAAs. “It was a big week for us, because the winner of NESCAC gets an automatic bid into Nationals,” captain Will Rich ’26 said. “So we had our sights set on this week for a while, and have been preparing for it for a long time.”
At practice, the Ephs leaned into internal competition. “Our practices have become super competitive,” Smith wrote to the Record. “In every practice, we are trying to outplay and beat one another … to simulate a tournament experience and push the team to perform when it matters most.”
Going into NESCACs, the difficulty of selecting the five competing players highlighted the team’s depth. “Since everyone on our team is pretty evenly matched, we didn’t even know which five of the nine on our team were going to NESCACs until the night before,” Nielsen wrote.
NESCACs differs from regular season tournaments because the competition’s regulations don’t permit players to preview the course, according to Rich. “The first day was pretty interesting,” he said. “Usually, teams get to play practice rounds, but for the NESCAC Championship, that is not allowed, and it was a tricky golf course.”
Windy weather posed another challenge for every team, contributing to higher scores across the board. Despite the wind, the Ephs positioned themselves well after the opening round, finishing second at 16-over par, just two strokes behind the Jumbos. “We knew that a tournament couldn’t be won on the first day, but we wanted to put [ourselves] in a good spot,” Estrella said.
Despite the harsher wind and rain conditions on the second day, the Ephs remained focused on maximizing each of their individual performances. “As Coach [Josh] Hillman always emphasizes, these tournaments are often won on the margin, with every shot making a big difference,” Alex Moller ’27 wrote to the Record. “That’s really all you can ask for in golf — to control what you can and not dwell on what you cannot.”
As Saturday’s round concluded, the Ephs and Jumbos each finished 4-over par, allowing the Ephs to maintain their second-place position.
The final round marked a turning point for the Ephs, as calmer weather and growing familiarity with the course allowed them to surge ahead. “Sunday was a picture-perfect day with little wind, which was a nice change of pace from most of our season being cold and windy,” Nielsen wrote.
Smith and Estrella started the day off strong, each opening with a birdie to go under par in the first three holes, while the Jumbos were 6-over par in the same stretch, allowing the Ephs to take the tournament’s lead. “The rest of our team came down to watch us, which was great for our momentum,” Estrella said. “Seeing my freshman, Nicky Smith, play really well behind me, I knew that the momentum was on our side.”
As the day went on, the Ephs widened the gap. Smith made two birdies and three bogeys to finish Sunday with a score of 72, 1-over par. Combined with his scores of 71 and 70 from the previous rounds, he ended the tournament with an even-par total of 213, winning him the NESCAC individual champion title — the Ephs’ first since 2017. Smith highlighted his positive attitude as a key factor in his success. “Even after I had a bad swing or a hole, I looked for positive outlooks and mindsets to continue through my round,” he wrote. “I was constantly trying to relax and calm my nerves by just focusing on the current shot and process instead of the outcome.”
Estrella led all individuals on Sunday with a tournament-best score of 68, posting five birdies en route to a 3-under day. His performance slingshotted him from sixth place into a runner-up finish. “I was playing simple golf and wanted to shoot a really good score,” Estrella said.
The Ephs closed out the third round at 6-over par as a team, while the Jumbos finished at 21-over par, which, combined with the results from the previous two days, was enough for the Ephs to seal a 13-shot win. “This experience really just cemented our belief that we are a dominant team in the conference,” Moller wrote. “That sense of belief is really important in golf, and I know it will serve us very well down the road.”
For a team consisting of mostly underclassmen, the win carried added significance as the Ephs’ first tournament victory in two years. “This tournament means everything, and it was well worth the wait,” Estrella said. “We work really hard together, and we all love being around each other and seeing how much we have grown.”
Rich emphasized the difficulty of achieving a strong team performance in golf. “Golf at times feels sort of like a losing game,” he said. “It’s a little bit different from other sports because, even with the best players, it’s sort of hard to continuously get team wins, because you need all four or five guys to play really well in one week. So having it all happen for us this weekend was very special.”
The Ephs now turn their attention to the NCAA Div. III Championships in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., beginning on May 12. “We’re just going to have as much fun as we can together,” Nielsen wrote. “We know that our best collective play can compete with any team in Division III.”
