Coming off a prolific opening round at the NCAA Championships,
the UCLA men’s golf team seemed poised to make a title run in
the coming days.
But instead of filling their scorecards with birdies and eagles,
the Bruin golfers scattered the bunkers and filled the holes with
bogeys.
After the final round on Saturday, UCLA left Sunriver, Ore.,
without much drama, finishing in a tie for seventh place at the
NCAA Championships. It was yet another mediocre end to a dazzling
Bruin season.
The Bruins ended the final round with a team score of 1,157
(+5), 14 strokes behind where they would have liked to be. Oklahoma
State won the NCAA title with a brilliant final round at 5-under to
finish with a final score of 1,143 (-9).
“Obviously it’s kind of sad. We didn’t have
the finish we had hoped for. It didn’t feel good to watch
Oklahoma State go up there and get their awards, but we’ll
use that for motivation for next year,” freshman Erik Flores
said.
Individually, no one was able to step up for the Bruins.
Looking at the scorecard, not even a golf fan would have been
able to tell that the lineup featured two top-25 golfers.
Flores, ranked 13th nationally, led the way with 289 (+1).
Freshman James Lee finished one shot behind him at 290 (+2). Pac-10
champion Daniel Im, ranked 23rd, turned in a performance worth
forgetting, shooting 296 (+8).
“When you consider that it was 16 rounds over four days,
it ends up being less than one shot per person per day,”
coach O.D. Vincent said.
“We did not putt very well this weekend, and things
didn’t go our way when we needed it. It’s hard to
pinpoint any one thing. We just didn’t have a lot of good
happen to us.”
For Vincent, it was an ending all too familiar.
In his four seasons as coach, Vincent has given the golf program
at UCLA a new life, bringing it back to national prominence. Since
2002 the Bruins have recorded a pair of top-three NCAA finishes,
but never have they won it all.
Entering the tournament, the fifth-ranked Bruins were coming off
one of their finest seasons in UCLA history, marked by a
team-record seven tournament victories and capped off with a Pac-10
Championship.
“We won six times, we won the Pac-10. It was a solid
season ““ it’s a good season. You can’t take
anything away from that. We underachieved at the end, but we know
we can do better. It’s been a sweet season with a little sour
taste at the end,” Flores said.
The Bruins started the tournament on a tear, posting a score of
280 (-8) to finish in second place after the first round.
“We expected for us to play really well. We were a fairly
strong team, and we felt that we had a good chance to win the
tournament. What we did on the first day was something we knew we
could do,” Im said.
But from there it went downhill.
In the second round the Bruins shot a 294 (+6) and followed it
up with a lackluster third round at 296 (+8).
“Nothing really went well for us after the first round.
Everything just kind of started to fall apart. We were trying our
best, but nothing really came together,” Im said.
By the time the golfers teed off for the final round, the Bruins
found themselves tied for 10th place, 13 shots behind the
leader.
The Bruins knew it would take a little more than a miracle for
them to win.
“In every other sport, if you dig yourself in a hole, you
can press and come back. In golf, when you try to make things
happen, you get almost the opposite of what you want to do. You
start taking higher-risk shots and you make more mistakes.
It’s a position you don’t want to get into,”
Flores said.
However, as the team returns to Westwood empty-handed once
again, there is reason to look forward to next year.
Every one of UCLA’s golfers will be back next year, and
having reached the NCAA Championships, the experience will
hopefully carry the men to their ultimate goal.
“Overall we learned a lot. We’re a young team, and
we are excited to make the improvements we need to make so that
we’re not the ones watching the award ceremony next year from
the grand stand,” Vincent said.