Skill puts w. golf on fairway to national championship
Tournament victories, coupled with new talent make Bruin team
title contender
By Paul Jennings
Daily Bruin Contributor
Opening the 1995-96 season in style, the UCLA women’s golf team
finds itself very much in the hunt for a national championship.
UCLA has held the NCAA top spot for most of the season, but is
closely contended by California rival San Jose State. The Bruins
won their first four tournaments and followed those wins with three
consecutive second-place finishes.
"A strong nucleus of returning players, combined with some
talented newcomers, gives us the possibility of contending for a
Pac-10 and NCAA title," coach Jackie Steinmann said at the
beginning of the season.
After an impressive start, Steinmann, in her 19th year as head
coach, and the Bruin squad are now seeing possibility become
reality.
Led by seniors Jenny Park and Kathy Choi, the Bruins opened
their season with an emphatic victory at the Rolex Fall Preview in
La Quinta. UCLA finished 11 strokes ahead of both defending NCAA
champion Arizona State and the NCAA runner-up Spartans.
The Bruins continued their success by placing first at the New
Mexico Invite, led by sophomore transfer Amandine Vincent’s
two-under-par performance. First place finishes at the Stanford
Intercollegiate and San Diego Fall Classic were secured by strong
individual performances from Jenny Park and Jeong Min Park
respectively.
UCLA then fell to San Jose State at the Golf World Invite and
again lost to the Spartans at the USC Invitational, placing second
in both tournaments.
Playing in the USC Invitational at Palos Verdes Country Club,
the Bruins led the first two rounds but were overtaken by a
nine-under-par final round by the Spartans. Top individual honors
for UCLA went to Jenny Park, who tied for second place with a
two-under-par 214.
Leading the Bruin team in scoring this season are Jenny Park
with a 73.20 average and Kathy Choi with 73.58. Park and Choi have
finished in the top 20 a combined 25 times in their UCLA careers
and bring experience and leadership to team members Amandine
Vincent (75.00), Jeong Min Park (73.35), Eunice Choi (75.64) and
Betty Chen (78.00).Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu