Even with USC trailing the Bruins by one stroke at the end of round 1, the No. 1 UCLA women’s golf team was the favorite to take home the Pac-10 Championship at Palos Verdes Golf Club. Junior Tiffany Joh and sophomore Sydnee Michaels were tied for first place with a score of 2-under par.
Then everything went wrong.
The Bruins fell to second place over the next 36 holes with a total score of 886 (34-over par), losing to their crosstown rival by 26 strokes. Third-place Arizona State finished 5 strokes behind UCLA.
Individually, both Joh and Michaels surrendered their first-place lead as they dropped to third and 30th place, with scores of 217 (4-over par) and 232 (19-over par), respectively.
The Trojans were led by individual champion Paola Moreno, who carded a 212 (1-under par) to win the championship. Both Moreno and Arizona State’s Anna Nordqvist, who scored 216 (3-over par), edged out Joh, who won the Pac-10 title last year.
“Obviously, I’m a little unhappy about how I finished,” Joh said. “Team-wise, it wasn’t a great showing. But (USC), from what I hear from their team and members at Palos Verdes, they’ve just been putting in so much time down there, practically living there. They played good, hats off to them. What can you do?”
Coach Carrie Forsyth pointed to the team’s failure to execute shots as the biggest difference between the solid play in the first round and the disappointing performance in the following two rounds.
“We didn’t make putts,” Forsyth said. “On this golf course, if you’re not making putts, then you’re going to shoot some higher numbers. At the end of the day, as a team, we really didn’t make enough putts to play well at Palos Verdes.”
Even though the Bruins lacked execution, they maintained their composure.
“We’ve had problems in the past where players were struggling a little bit,” Forsyth said. “They would get down on themselves and sort of compound their errors. We didn’t do that this week at all. Everybody felt very focused with their shots, no matter what it was for. I was really pleased with that part of our game, our mental game.”
“We really grinded it out there. We just didn’t get putts to fall in our favor or breaks in our favor,” Joh said.
Joh also praised the Bruin freshmen for handling the pressures of their first Pac-10 tournament well. Glory Yang and Maria Jose Uribe, were tied in 10th place and 14th place with scores of 223 (10-over par) and 225 (11-over par), respectively.
With the NCAA Regional tournament looming, the Bruins have their work cut out for them.
“We need to tighten up every aspect of our game a little bit,” Joh said. “Definitely short game ““ you can’t work on short game enough. For me, I just have to tighten up my swing and make sure that under pressure, it’s not going to fall apart.”
Forsyth labeled putting as the biggest difference between the first-place and second-place finishes.
“For the most part, the girls played pretty solid. The USC team made a ton of putts. They were making everything, and we didn’t. In the end, that was the biggest factor between the two teams,” Forsyth said.
Despite the disappointing finish, the golfers will make changes and continue focusing on their postseason.
“I’m still going to take a lot of confidence away from it,” Joh said. “Second place is never bad for a tournament. At the same time, I know what I need to work on. I need to work hard to tighten up everything. Whatever happens at Pac-10 and Regionals … come nationals, everyone has to be sharp.”
“Mentally we’re at a good place, in spit of our loss,” Forsyth said. “We’re pretty inspired by this because we want to go out and play well in the rest of the postseason. It’s disappointing, but it’s not the end.”
JOH IS PLAYER OF THE YEAR: The Pac-10 Conference announced Tiffany Joh as the player of the year Wednesday. Joh is the fourth-ranked player in the nation according to Golfweek. She won the Pac-10 individual title last season.
Joh and Glory Yang were named to the conference first team and Sydnee Michaels and Maria Jose Uribe made the second team.