Before the NCAA men’s golf championship began last
Wednesday, UCLA coach O.D. Vincent believed his team could win the
title just as likely as it could finish in last place.
Yet sticking with convention, the Bruin coach thought the most
probable finish for his team was going to be somewhere in between
the two extremes.
By the end of Saturday’s final round, however, UCLA had
lived up to one of the scenarios Vincent tabbed unlikely, and not
the one that has the Bruins bringing home the national
championship.
The 13th-ranked UCLA men’s golf team was eliminated from
the NCAA Championships following Friday’s third round after
failing to make the 15-team cut to play in the final round at Caves
Valley Golf Club near Baltimore, Md.
After posting a collective team total of 24-over par in
Friday’s third round, which would end up being UCLA’s
final round of the year, the Bruins (64-over par) ensured
themselves of a last place finish and an earlier return flight to
Los Angeles.
“In a way, it was embarrassing leaving the hotel with our
bags packed when other teams are leaving to play,” sophomore
Chris Heintz said. “But we wanted to get the hell out of
there.”
The Bruins didn’t stick around to watch fifth-ranked
Georgia claim its second title in the program’s history with
seemingly relative ease. The Bulldogs finished the 72-hole
tournament with a collective team total of 15-over par, besting
second place and in-state rival Georgia Tech by a comfortable 11
shots.
That the Bruins were not even in contention by the
tournament’s end did not take Vincent or his Bruins by
surprise. Coming into the championship UCLA knew it had to have all
five of its players to synchronously have their best tournament of
the season for any chance at winning a national championship.
So when the Bruins struggled in their opening round, posting a
19-over par team total, their hopes at claiming a title grew
precariously slim. When they played even worse in their second
round, compiling a 21-over par team total, it was all but a
formality; they knew they’d be leaving Baltimore with their
golf bags and nothing more.
Only sophomore Chris Heintz, whose 74, 74 and 71 constituted
three of UCLA’s four lowest rounds at the championship,
navigated through the treacherous Caves Valley course with any
marginal success.
“Our good shots weren’t good enough, and our bad
shots were just really bad,” Heintz said.
Yet by the end of Thursday’s second round, the Bruin
players stopped focusing on a national title, at least for this
season, and instead contemplated what lessons could be learned for
next year’s team.
Aside from senior John Poucher, who ended his career as a Bruin
on a sour note with a 22-over par total for the championship, each
of the remaining four starters on the team has at least two years
of eligibility remaining.
Coupled with the addition of three nationally heralded recruits
is reason enough for UCLA to believe that it won’t be long
until the Bruins reposition themselves on the other side of the
leaderboard, and take the regularly scheduled flight home.
“We know we don’t want to be in that situation
again,” Heintz said. “Next time, we’ll be better,
more prepared and ready to play, and we’ll finish a lot
higher. We don’t want to take the Saturday flight home
again.”