There’s an old adage in golf that you can’t win a
tournament on the first day of the competition.
But you can lose one.
The No. 5 UCLA men’s golf team came dangerously close to
losing sight of the leaders at the first round of the NCAA
Championships in Hot Springs, Virginia, on Tuesday.
But after the dust had cleared and the rain swept away most of
the initial awkwardness on the Cascades Course on the Homestead
Resort, the Bruins still found themselves sitting in the clubhouse
in contention heading into Wednesday, in spite of an extremely poor
start.
UCLA, who began its round on the back nine, posted a collective
9-over par team total and resides in a tie for 12th place going
into the second round, currently sitting 10 shots back of
frontrunner California.
While it may seem the Bruins have taken on a severely uphill
battle for the remainder of the 72-hole tournament, the players
made up an even larger deficit on the Cascades Course to win the
Fall Preview back in September. At that tournament, the players
consumed all of a double-digit lead in only 18 holes, whereas they
still have 54 holes remaining for the championship.
“You could tell things weren’t going our way
today,” UCLA coach O.D. Vincent said. “This will be the
worst round we’ll play this tournament. Our best golf is
still ahead of us.”
Their best golf certainly wasn’t waiting for them on the
10th tee Tuesday afternoon. Immersed in winds of upwards to 30
miles per hour, the Bruins shot a collective 15-over par through
their first six holes in the first round, digging themselves a hole
which they had to claw themselves out of for the remainder of the
round.
“The stretch from 10 to 15 is a really hard
stretch,” said senior Travis Johnson, who posted a 1-under
par 69 and was the lone Bruin to navigate Cascades’ back nine
unscathed. “The front side is where we’ll do all of our
scoring.”
While seniors Roy Moon and John Merrick successfully rebounded
from their tough starts to post matching 1-over 71s, senior Steve
Conway and junior John Poucher were not as fortunate.
Usually one of the team’s most consistent golfers, Conway
carded nine holes of bogey or worse and struggled en route to
posting an 8-over par 78, which counted toward the overall team
score. Poucher’s 9-over par 79 was dropped.
“You’re not going to go through 72 holes without
hitting a lull,” Vincent said. “You’re going to
have a stretch where you don’t play well. It just so happened
each one had their stretch today. But (Merrick’s and
Moon’s) round as well as Travis’ round saved the day
for us.”
When they resume play today, the Bruins expect bigger and better
things with their advantageous morning tee times. While 7 a.m. may
seem a bit early for some, it’s a wake-up call they’re
looking forward to answering, if for no other reason they’ll
be off the course by the times the elements kick in.
“(Today) is going to be the moving day for us,”
Johnson said. “We’ll get off before the wind starts
up.”
Vincent added, “We’re going under par.”