The UCLA men’s golf team went to sleep Tuesday night on
the heels of one of its best performances of the season.
On Wednesday, however, the Bruins followed that up with one of
their worst.
In prime position to secure a top-two finish before they teed
off, the Bruins quickly slid down the leaderboard in the final
round of the Pac-10 Championships held at Walla Walla Country Club
in Walla Walla, Wash.
UCLA posted a collective team total of 16-over par on Wednesday,
the second-highest score in the field, and fell all the way to
fourth place with a tournament total of 12-over par.
Washington, a team that’s not ranked in the top 25, made
up all of a 17-shot deficit to finish at 5-over par to win the
conference championship by virtue of a tiebreaker over Arizona
State.
Having teed off two hours before the frontrunners, the Huskies
finished their round early and had the luxury of watching the
competition come back to them.
Among the teams that backtracked was UCLA, which appeared to
wilt when the pressure was at its greatest.
Still clinging to the possibility of making a run at the
conference championship before making the turn, the Bruins lost any
chance of claiming victory as soon as they began play on the back
nine.
Besides sophomore Joakim Renstrom, who carded two birdies and
posted a 1-under par 34 on his final nine holes, the rest of the
Bruin team struggled mightily on Walla Walla’s back nine.
Freshman Daniel Im and senior John Poucher each shot 38.
Freshman Kevin Chappell shot 39.
Sophomore Peter Campbell shot 40.
Sophomore Chris Heintz shot 43.
And though scores in Wednesday’s final round were on
average a shot higher than for the rest of the tournament, five of
the six Bruins saw at least three shots added to their previous
round’s total.
Despite a day that saw UCLA move the wrong way on the
leaderboard, Chappell still went on to post the best finish of his
young collegiate career. With a final round 75, the third-best
total of the day for the Bruins, Chappell finished the tournament
in red figures, compiling a 72-hole total of 1-under par and tying
for seventh place.
Joining him in the top-20 were teammates Poucher (1-over par)
and Renstrom (3-over par), who finished tied for 14th and 19th
place respectively.
While the Bruins certainly have to be disappointed in how they
closed out their first postseason tournament of the season, they
can take solace in the fact that they will be given a reprieve when
they tee it up during the NCAA Regionals in two weeks.