Freshman Hannah Jun is usually hard to please.
Though the sport of golf can be frustrating enough on its own,
Jun typically carries lingering thoughts of her rounds long after
she finishes the 18th hole, contemplating what might have been.
After Thursday’s first round of the NCAA West Regional at
the Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto, Calif., Jun and her UCLA
teammates should have nothing to complain about.
Jun fired a blazing 5-under par 67 to take the individual
outright lead Thursday. In doing so she propelled the first-place
Bruins to a collective 6-under par total and an early lead. UCLA
has the comfort of an eight-shot cushion over California heading
into today’s second round.
While Jun’s scorecard may have appeared spotless, carding
six birdies against one bogey, the freshman still felt she left a
couple of shots on the course.
“I could have made more putts, and I didn’t hit the
driver as well as I’d like,” Jun said. “But
that’s it.”
“She’s always picky about her game,” UCLA
coach Carrie Forsyth added. “But this is the kind of round we
have been expecting of her. Her complaints about her game were
pretty minimal today.”
Those complaints weren’t always as inaudible.
During the fall season, Jun struggled trying to incorporate her
game onto the collegiate scene, and the results showed. In her
first collegiate start back in September, the much-heralded
freshman opened up her UCLA career by shooting an 82 at Grand
National Golf Club in Alabama, site of the 2004 NCAA
Championships.
But the spring season has seen a rejuvenated Jun playing at the
caliber she and her coaches expected from the onset. With her fall
performance a distant memory, Jun, the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year,
has finished in the top eight in three of her last four tournaments
and looks to be on her way to another high finish.
“It’s taken me a while to get used to things,”
Jun said. “Everything is just settled down a lot more right
now. I’m in a groove.”
Jun’s recent emergence has proven to be the perfect
complement to junior Charlotte Mayorkas’ dominance. The
tandem sit 1-2 on the leaderboard after Mayorkas continued her
exceptionally strong play by posting a 2-under par 70.
“Charlotte hasn’t had a bad round in a while,”
Forsyth said. “Her misses are so good. She should never
really shoot a high score.”
Sophomore Susie Mathews, who had been struggling of late, carded
four birdies en route to shooting an even-par 72.
Though the team jumped out of the gate quickly on its
competition, there are two more rounds to be played, which means
plenty of danger is still lurking.
“Eight shots is nothing with 36 holes left,” Jun
said.
She’s hard to please.