The smell of intensity was in the air at the Los Angeles Country Club where the UCLA men’s golf team faced USC at the Lexus Gauntlet Dual Match. The teams’ extreme dedication to the match ended the day with a tie.
“Every time you tie, it’s a little bit frustrating; you work that hard all day and tie. But these things always come down to the last hole or two, and it just shows how good both teams are,” UCLA coach O.D. Vincent said. “Both teams played pretty good ball today.”
The first-ranked player in the nation, Trojan freshman Jamie Lovemark, did not disappoint his status and won his singles match over Bruin junior Kevin Chappell.
“Kid played really well, he’s really talented,” Chappell said. “I gave a few holes that I probably shouldn’t have, a few mistakes; overall I think I played decent.”
Bruin junior Craig Leslie had probably one of the best performances on the field. In the fifth singles pairing, Leslie defeated USC junior Jordan Nasser by a score of four and three.
“Going into this I knew that this was going to be a tough match, but there were no expectations. I think that’s how you play match play,” Leslie said. “You go in, take every shot at a time.”
Leslie was the replacement for sophomore Lucas Lee. Lee could not compete at the dual match because he has competed in 23 tournaments and reached his limit.
“(Leslie) played great,” Lee said. “He had four birdies. He played really great.”
This was the last competition of the year for Leslie.
“This was the end of my season,” Leslie said. “It feels great to leave on a high note.”
“I am proud of Craig, he got himself ready to play,” Vincent said. “For a guy who’s not going to the regional for us, he was pretty disappointed. He had a really nice year but we have a lot of depth. It’s tough to get in the lineup and unfortunately for Craig he just did not have a really good Pac-10, which just shows that we can have another four guys out and probably have the same results.”
The team’s depth goes beyond Leslie. The Bruins were able to match their competition, who swept them at the Pac-10s.
They finished the match with 2.5 points. Junior Daniel Im won the No. 2 singles with one up. In No. 3 singles, freshman Jason Kang tied with his opponent. In the fourth singles pairing, sophomore Erik Flores lost to USC’s Tom Glissmeyer by two.
The Bruins and the Trojans performed at the same level on Thursday, but USC’s incredible performance at the Pac-10s gave them five Lexus Guantlet points, breaking the tie and giving the Trojans the season victory. The Bruins will play the Trojans in the rest of the playoff matches.
“It’s an intense rivalry between both schools and I think it’s because both schools are so good in all the sports,” Vincent said. “It’s a great rivalry. I wish we could play more often.”