The Justice

Media Credit: David Sheppard-Brick

As Lee Bloom '10 walked off the course at last Saturday's Jack Berry Massachusetts Institute of Technology Invitational, teammate Jeff Stein '08 was the first to greet him.

"What'd you shoot?" Stein said.

"Seventy," Bloom replied.

"Really, what'd you shoot?" Stein said, not believing Bloom's response.

Bloom wasn't kidding. He did, in fact, shoot a two-under-par 70 at the tournament, and though he didn't win, falling on the first playoff hole, he still managed to shoot the best single round in the program's history. It was also the first time that he had ever shot under par in a competitive golf tournament at any level.

"I've never seen [coach Bill Shipman's] smile so wide," Bloom said.

Bloom made par on 14 of his 18 holes and hit a staggering 16 greens in regulation, allowing him to avoid having to attempt difficult chip shots.

He was at even par through nine holes. He birdied the par-five fifth hole, but got his only bogey on the sixth hole when his second shot landed in a wedge on the lip of a green-side bunker.

Bloom parred the 10th and 11th holes before hitting a birdie on the par-five 12th to go to 1-under-par. After pars on the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th holes, Bloom hit his second birdie on the par-four 17th when he stuck his second shot to within five feet of the hole.

"I didn't want to get ahead of myself-I didn't want to think about it too much out there-but I'd say that when I hit that green, I knew that I was going to come in somewhere around par," Bloom said.

Bloom credited his mental approach to his record-breaking round, saying he was "underachieving" earlier in the year until he learned to keep his head in the moment.

"Normally, I'm very ADD out there, but this time, I was approaching it one shot at a time. I wasn't thinking about five holes away," he said.

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