To be the best, you have to beat the best.
The No. 13 UCLA women’s golf team kicks off play today at
the NCAA West Regional in Tempe, Arizona at Karsten Golf Course.
The 21-team field is the strongest the Bruins have seen this
year.
Including UCLA, 15 of the 21 teams are ranked in the top 50 in
the country, including No. 2 Pepperdine, No. 3 Oklahoma State, and
No. 4 USC.
With only the top eight teams advancing to the NCAA Championship
in Indiana, the competition promises to be fierce.
“We are definitely looking forward to going back to
ASU,” head coach Carrie Leary said in a statement. “We
have practiced hard and we’re ready for this year’s
event.”
This will be the Bruins’ second trip to Karsten Golf
Course this season, and if experience counts for anything, UCLA may
have a leg up on most of the field.
Back on April 6, sophomore Charlotte Mayorkas captured her first
collegiate title at the ASU Invitational held at Karsten. Mayorkas
set Bruin records for lowest individual round (66) and lowest
54-hole score (seven under par). The team finished third in the
tournament, only two shots back of first-place California.
Mayorkas, currently ranked No. 10 in the country, is one of three
Bruins who have won at Karsten.
UCLA will field the same starting lineup that recently completed
the Pac-10 Championships in Corvallis, Oregon.
Joining Mayorkas will be freshman Susie Mathews and juniors Hana
Kim, Melissa Martin, and Gina Umeck. Kim led the Bruins in the
Pac-10 Championships with a fifth-place showing.
The golfers will play 18 holes each day, with the top four
scores from each five-person team counting toward the team score in
each round.
In the 2002 NCAA West Regional at Stanford Golf Course, UCLA and
Pepperdine tied for first with a total of 19 over par.
The top eight teams qualify for the NCAA Championships, which
will be held at Purdue from May 20-23.
The other teams at the tournament will be No. 16 Ohio State, No.
27 Arizona State, No. 28 Stanford, No. 26 New Mexico State, No. 20
Washington, UNLV, San Francisco, San Jose State, Oregon State,
Denver, Nevada, Illinois, Washington State, Oral Roberts, Cal State
Northridge, Portland State and Bradley.