The No. 9 UCLA men’s golf team will look to cap off one
of its most successful seasons in university history when it tees
up at the NCAA Championship on the Karsten Creek Golf Course in
Stillwater, Okla.Â
The championship will be played over four rounds from May 27 to
30, with the top four scores from each five-man squad contributing
to the team’s overall shot total.
To say the team is coming into the tournament with some
late-season momentum is an understatement. The Bruins have
held the lead at the end of their last nine rounds of competition,
a month-long streak that spans over three tournaments.Â
However, head coach O.D. Vincent is preparing his team to
encounter some difficult conditions on the tough 7,301-yard par-72
Karsten course, the only one of 10 courses in the country to be
given a five-star rating by Golf Digest.
“We’re expecting wind, and we’re expecting an
extremely difficult golf course in Oklahoma,” said Vincent
after the NCAA West Regional.Â
By winning the regional, the Bruins earned one of the top three
seeds in the championship. UCLA will be paired with the winners of
the NCAA Central Regional and the NCAA East Regional: Oklahoma
State and Clemson, respectively. Vincent knows it’s
imperative for his team to get off to a good start so that the
players feel comfortable with their game.
“We’re going to have a great pairing,” Vincent
said. “The (team) is right where they want to be, playing
with those two teams in the first two rounds. If we can get
out ahead of them, we’re going to be in pretty good shape for
the tournament.”
Traveling to Oklahoma is the “Junior Fab-Five” of
Steve Conway, John Merrick, Roy Moon, Travis Johnson and John
Poucher. This core group has won six of the last seven
tournaments they participated in, including the Pac-10 Championship
and the NCAA West Regional.
Conway and Merrick have been the most consistent Bruins for the
latter part of the season, both placing in the top 12 in their last
three tournaments. Merrick attributed his success, as well as the
team’s, to Vincent’s philosophy of peaking at the end
of the season.
“We have chosen to look at the NCAA Championship as a
seven-round tournament, with the first three rounds being played at
the regional,” Vincent said.Â
With the first three rounds in the books, only four rounds of
golf separate the team from the school’s second golf
championship. However, don’t expect visions of grandeur
and prosperity to seep into these Bruins’ minds. They
know that sticking to the philosophy that got them to this position
will give them their best shot at taking home the crown.Â
One round at a time, one hole at a time, one shot at a time.