For a team whose season doesn’t start for another five
months, the defending champion UCLA women’s golf team is
already a bit tired.
That’s because women’s golf coach Carrie Forsyth is
keeping her team pretty busy, having scheduled three exhibition
tournaments in a span of less than two weeks.
Though it would appear Forsyth is trying to keep her team on top
of its game, the fact is she’s just trying to make the squad
stronger for its marathon finish this spring, even if that decision
means challenging them now.
Fresh off its seventh-place finish at the Fall Preview in Bend,
Ore., the Bruins will travel across the country to Nashville, Tenn.
to compete in the Mason Rudolph Championship, hosted by Vanderbilt
University at The Legends Club.
The tournament, which spans from Friday to Sunday, will be
played at The Ironhorse Course at The Legends Club, which plays to
a par of 72 over 6,069 yards.
Traveling to Tennessee will be the regular starting lineup of
senior Charlotte Mayorkas, junior Susie Mathews, sophomore Hannah
Jun, and freshmen Amie Cochran and Vanessa Brockett.
For one thing, the golfers are hoping their legs catch up to
them.
“I think we’re a little fatigued,” Jun
said.
Some of the fatigue can be attributed to the tournament held two
weeks ago in Riverside, where the women took on a field of 29 all-
male teams.
Finishing in 23rd place, the women came away from the tournament
with more confidence, but at the expense of mental energy.
“It was a grueling type of tournament,” Forsyth
said. “We came away from it really mentally
fatigued.”
So the team will tee off today, a bit weary, still searching for
its first tournament victory of the season.
“We almost won this tournament last year,” Forsyth
said. “So we have a little bone to pick with this
course.”