When members of the UCLA women’s golf team learned that freshman phenom Maria Jose Uribe was going to miss the PING/ASU Invitational at the Karsten Course to participate in the LPGA’s Kraft Nabisco Championship, they knew they would have to step up to avoid a collapse in the tournament.
After the first and second rounds, the situation looked dismal for UCLA as careless play landed the top-ranked Bruins in sixth place.
But the Bruins regrouped and finished third out of 17 teams in the tournament with a final score of 876 (12-over par), trailing USC and Arizona State, which scored 854 and 865, respectively. The Trojans’ Dewi-Claire Schreefel and the Sun Devils’ Anna Nordqvist tied for first place to win the individual event.
“We had an attitude adjustment,” junior Tiffany Joh said. “We started off terribly. But we switched our momentum. We fed off each other. When we found out that Sydnee (Michaels) eagled one hole and Ryann (O’Toole) birdied another, that got us going.”
One of the players who stepped up in place of Uribe was redshirt junior Maiya Tanaka.
After two high scores in the first two rounds, Tanaka carded a stellar 4-under-par 68 in the final round on Sunday.
“That was huge for her, the lowest score for the day, the reason we finished where we are,” coach Carrie Forsyth said. “She didn’t have a lot of distraction, and she really came up big for the team.”
“Knowing (Uribe) wasn’t there, we got the feeling that everyone had to be perfect to get to where we were before,” Joh said.
“But Maiya came in with an amazing score, and we realize how much depth we have. We’re really proud of her.”
What the Bruins missed the most in Uribe was her energy.
“Maria’s a charismatic person,” Joh said. “Of course, we were also missing her score because she’s one of our top players. She’s mentally tough and has a positive attitude.”
Along with Joh, sophomore Sydnee Michaels finished in the top 10 of the individual performances. Michaels’ consistent scores of 71, 72 and 70 over the tournament, totaling a team-best 3-under par (213), landed her in fifth place.
“She did a great job,” Forsyth said. “She’s been playing pretty solid, not a lot of big mistakes, and she handled it really well this week.”
Joh, who placed eighth in the individual event with a final score of 1-over-par 217, felt she had to overcome a poor start. She found Karsten’s signature 16th hole most testing. The lengthy par-3 has a lake running along the right side.
“There is always a long wait, and you’re watching the other girls hit the ball in the water,” Joh said. “And (while playing) you see a group of Arizona girls waiting, all these yellow shirts watching you play. As a team, that hole was challenging.”
Although the Bruins were able to overcome Uribe’s absence, they still saw flaws in their play that they must address as the postseason looms.
“We have to do the same things to prepare for the postseason,” Joh said. “Especially for me, we have to toughen up mentally. During this tournament, at times I felt defeated, not performing as well as I would like to, so it’s a big challenge.”
The Bruins will take their experience from the PING/ASU Invitational into their next tournament, the Pac-10 Championship, at the Palos Verdes Country Club on April 21.
“We did a lot of good things this week,” Forsyth said. “We wanted to be more aggressive with putting and with our ball striking, as well as our mental toughness. We go into every tournament to try to win.”
URIBE MAKES THE CUT: Uribe played well enough in the first two rounds of the Kraft Nabisco Championship to make the cut and play into the weekend. The freshman and former U.S. Amateur champion finished in 58th place after a four-round score of 12-over par.