ITHACA, N.Y.—The Columbia Men's Golf program captured its first team tournament championship in four years as the Lions won the Cornell Invitational title this weekend at Robert Trent Golf Course. Sophomore Daniel Core, who led the individual standings after the first two rounds, earned runner-up individual honors as he finished at a three-under-par 70-68-72-210. Final results are available on Golfstat at THIS LINK.
 
Holding a nine-stroke lead heading into Sunday's final round, Columbia's A team maintained its lead and held off a hard-charging Bucknell team to capture the title by one stroke. Using scores from Core, first-year Nathan Han, first-year Alvin Kwak, senior Nick Brisebois, and junior John Youn Sung Kim, the Lions finished at 14-over-par 288-287-291-866. On Sunday, the Lions used Han's 71, Core's 72, Kwak's 73 and Brisebois' 75 as counting scores. Columbia led the tournament in par-4 scoring (4.20) and ranked second among 16 teams in pars (172).
 
The last time Columbia captured a team invitational title was Sept. 25-26, 2015 at the Tuxedo Autumn Invitational. Columbia's 866 team total ranked as the 14^th best three-round tournament score in school history.
 
"Winning a college golf tournament nowadays is incredibly tough to do," Columbia Head Coach Rich Mueller said. "I'm so proud of all of the players that participated this weekend. It was a total team effort."
 
Three Columbia golfers placed among the field's top-10 individuals including Core (2^nd place), junior Arjun Puri, who led the Columbia B team with a sixth place finish at one-over-par 70-72-72-214 and first-year Han, who finished in seventh place at two-over-par 71-73-71-215. Led by Puri, Columbia's B Team finished in eighth place with a 31-over-par 300-290-293-883.
 
Core's 210 score ranks tied for the eighth-best individual 54-hole total in school history. It also ties his own career-low 54-hole total as he also finished with a 210 at last year's Princeton Invitational. After Saturday's first two rounds, Core led the individual standings at four-under-par. In the first round, he registered birdies on holes 6, 9 and 17 and carded a birdie on 16. The second round saw him score four birdies on the back-nine including holes 11, 14, 15 and 18. On Sunday, he registered two birdies en route to an Even 72 and finished the weekend with 10 birdies and an eagle. Saint Joseph's Michael O'Brien, who fired an incredible six-under-par 66 on Sunday, claimed the individual title at six-under-par 72-69-66-207.
 
Puri finished in sixth place individually as he carded four birdies on Sunday. He tallied six birdies and one eagle on Saturday and was especially impressive in the first round as he started on fire, carding three birdies (holes 1, 2 and 6) and an eagle on hole 8 for a 32 on the front nine. He finished the weekend with 10 birdies and an eagle.
 
Han moved up four spots on Sunday as he parlayed four birdies into a 71, Columbia's best round on the day. On the weekend, Han ranked fifth in the field in pars (36) and second in par-4 scoring (4.06).
 
Other Columbia A scorers included Kwak, who finished 24^th overall and carded a seven-over-par 72-75-73-220, Brisebois, who took 36^th at 11-over-par 75-74-75-224 and John Youn Sung Kim, who finished in 57^th place at 16-over-par 77-72-80-229.
 
In addition to Puri, Columbia B scorers included three players at 40^th place at 12-over-par: junior Dan Terrell (80-72-73-225), junior John Robertson (77-74-74-225), and sophomore Derek Kim (79-72-74-225), while senior Cullen Chung took 49^th (74-76-77-227).
 
Four Ivy League teams and 16 total teams are competing in the event including Binghamton, Brown, Bucknell, Canisius, Colgate, Columbia, host Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn, St. Bonaventure, Saint Joseph's, Siena and Temple.
 
The Robert Trent Jones Golf Course at Cornell University plays to 6,904 yards with a par of 71 from the Big Red tees. It has a rating of 73.1 and a slope of 137. More information on the course is available at this link.