In round one of the NCAA Championships, UCLA’s Kevin Chappell fired the best round of the day and carried the Bruin team into a tie for first place.
On Thursday it was the other Bruins who stepped up.
UCLA slid back to second place, one stroke behind Clemson at 14-over-par, but it also saw marked improvements from three players on the five-man team. The Bruins were once again able to deal with the constant winds that have blown throughout the week in West Lafayette, Ind.
The conditions may have been slightly easier because the Bruins all teed off before 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
Junior Lucas Lee improved his score seven shots from round one with an even par 72. After birdieing just one hole in his first round, Lee bounced back with three birdies on Thursday.
Freshman Philip Francis also bounced back, shooting a 73 and Erik Flores finished at 75. Those solid performances allowed UCLA to stay near the top of the leaderboard even though Chappell cooled off a bit, shooting a 73 after finishing at 69 on Wednesday.
Chappell is still in prime position to contend for the individual crown at 2-under-par for the entire tournament. He is in a fourth-place tie, three strokes behind Florida’s Billy Horschel.
And the Bruins will enter the third round today with a great chance to capture the program’s first NCAA title since 1988. The tournament will finish Saturday, and a wild finish could be in store.
The final three holes at the Kampen Course will create a daunting finish for the leaders Saturday; No. 16 is a massive par-5, No. 17 is a lengthy par-3 and the finishing hole is a brutal par-4.
Those holes posed many problems for the Bruins Thursday. None of the five players on the UCLA team recorded a birdie on the 16th, 17th or 18th hole. Chappell’s double bogey on 18 dropped him from second to fourth place overall. Lee bogeyed both 16 and 18. Francis also bogeyed 16.
The scores today and Saturday could be slightly better, though. Most teams improved in round two after one day of competition. The average score went down from 78.6 on Wednesday to 75.3 Thursday, a fairly significant amount.
Clemson shot a team score of 288 (even-par), which was 13 strokes better than its round one score and tied for the best team round so far this week. Stanford also fired an even par round and is currently in eighth place.