Men’s golf travels to Oregon Invitational
By Yoni Tamler
The UCLA men’s golf team begins its March play at the Oregon
Duck Invitational in Eugene today, where it expects to finish
markedly higher than in recent tournaments.
The Bruins will not have to manage with a field so rich in
talent as the one they faced two weeks ago in Hawaii. Approximately
half of the competition was ranked in the top twenty, including the
three top-ranked teams in the nation.
"(The Oregon Invitational) is a field we should be very
competitive in," UCLA head coach Dave Atchison said. "I would like
to see us finish in the top three because our biggest competitor is
Stanford. After that its a toss-up between us and a few other
teams."
According to Atchison, if UCLA plays well, the only teams that
pose a threat to UCLA of the sixteen teams competing are Brigham
Young and No. 2 Stanford.
"We’ve got a good team, they’re just inconsistent right now,"
Atchison said. "Every three-round tournament we’ll have two good
days and one bad day, and that one day keeps killing us. What we’re
working on is to get that one bad day to be OK, which keeps us in
the hunt, and then the other days will help us in the
tournament."
The weather in Eugene could also play a key role. Although the
Bruins fared extremely well in their last tournament riddled by
rain, they might not be so fortunate this week.
"This time of year it can be very wet and soggy with all the
rain they get up there," Atchison said. "This will be a different
type of rain (than in Hawaii) – a cold rain, so we’ll see what
happens.
"Eric Lohman will be primed for a good tournament because he
lived up in Washington for a couple of years, winning the
Washington State Amateur, and he has a lot of family friends coming
out to watch him, so he’s fired up to play well."
Lohman leads the Bruin lineup of Kevin Rhodes, Mike Miller, and
Brian Bock. Sophomore Trevor Arts will also compete for UCLA after
initially jeopardizing his status on the starting team.