A few more summer updates…

First, Chance Pipitone, who transferred to Duke last year after tearing up the links in his freshman season at Penn, has decided to return to Penn. According to an article from Golfweek, Pipitone declared that his desire to pursue a career in finance, not professional golf, prompted him to come back to Wharton.

“This was a difficult decision for me and was made with my academic interests in mind,” he said. “Coach Vincent, my teammates and everyone involved with the Duke golf program are class acts and I could not have asked for a better group of which to be a part.”

The Penn men’s golf team, which has made great strides in recent years, also welcomed GW’s Scott Allen in as the director of golf and head coach. With Pipitone on the roster in 2007, the Quakers won the Ivy crown, and Penn locked up third place last year. At the 2008 Ivy Championships, rising senior Michael Blodgett took home the top individual honors, finishing first at five over par. The return of a top talent like Pipitone should really help the Quakers to navigate the coaching change and to fill the void of the now graduated Dean Merrill, who again qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championship and will tee off Monday at Pinehurst.

Pipitone’s departure from Duke comes at a very interesting time for the Blue Devils’ golf program, which is currently caught up in a major controversy over the dismissal of Andrew Giuliani. Though the two events are unrelated — at least Pipitone said he left on fine terms with Duke coach O.D. Vincent — Giuliani has filed a lawsuit against the school, claiming that in an effort to trim the number of players on the team, Vincent exaggerated and made up incidents that portrayed Giuliani as a poor team player. Ultimately, Giuliani contends that Vincent used these incidents as grounds for cutting Giuliani from the team. Whatever the circumstances may be, Penn’s golf team must be thrilled to have its ace back.

When school starts up again, I’ll see if I can get Chance’s take on everything. I spoke to him last spring about an article on Penn golf’s practice routine, and he had sounded pretty happy at Duke, though he definitely indicated that he missed Penn. I could also use some short game tips from him, but that’s nothing newsworthy…

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Second, Ibby Jaaber has signed a two-year extension with Euroleague team Lottomatica Roma. The link to the only article in English I could find on it is here.

Tags: basketball, Ibby Jaaber, men's golf

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