The UCLA women’s golf team was one of the favorites to take home the national championship last season. But the weather gods decided otherwise.
“What was difficult about that tournament was that the weather conditions were just horrendous,” coach Carrie Forsyth said. “It threw a little bit of an X factor in. It felt like there was a little bit of luck involved depending on what tee times you ended up getting. You were more focused on surviving rather than the golf part of it.”
Last May, the grueling four-day NCAA Tournament held in New Mexico was characterized by heavy winds and thunderstorms, which even suspended play in Round 2.
USC ended up beating the Bruins by six strokes for the national championship.
“To come in second ““ that leaves a little bit of a sour taste in our mouth, even though it was a great finish,” Forsyth said.
Senior Tiffany Joh said that another explanation for the Bruins not winning the title was that UCLA’s lineup was not as strong as the Trojan lineup.
Forsyth said that although players one through four were solid, the Bruins’ No. 5 position was a little shaky.
This season, the No. 2 UCLA women’s golf team returns with all the players from last year’s roster.
Leading the pack is Joh, who last June won her second U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links title in three years.
Last season, she led the team in scoring average (71.8), top-10 finishes (9), rounds under par (14), rounds under 70 (5) and counter percentage (97 percent).
“Tiffany Joh is the team captain,” sophomore Maria Jose Uribe said. “She gets along with everybody. She is funny, but at the same time everybody has respect for her and her game.”
Forsyth points to the trifecta of Joh and fellow seniors Ryann O’Toole and Maiya Tanaka as the leaders of the team.
“They work hard in the classroom, they work hard in practice,” Forsyth said. “They provide a lot of guidance for some of the younger girls ““ (they’ve) taken them under their wings. They lead a lot by example.”
Uribe, who, according to Joh, plays with “tons of energy,” is another player to watch this season.
She won the 107th U.S. Women’s Amateur title at Crooked Stick Golf Course in Carmel, Ind., in 2007.
Alongside All-Americans Joh and Uribe, other teammates have been stepping up.
Junior Sydnee Michaels, sophomore Glory Yang and one of the newest additions to the team, freshman Stephanie Kono, have each won a tournament this season.
In September, Yang took home the Topy Cup in Japan, and Michaels won the Mason Rudolph Invitational.
Kono won at the Bruins’ most recent tournament, the Collegiate Match Play Championship.
The return of all of last season’s players, along with the addition of two promising freshmen in Kono and Brianna Do, has improved the depth of the Bruins compared to last year.
“Why we have that (depth) now is because some of the girls on the team have gotten a lot better, have become more consistent,” Forsyth said.
“Then we have new players who have stepped up and challenged that position, so we have a lot of inter-squad competition, and there’s not a lot of teams in the nation that have the kind of depth that we have now,” she added.
Despite these inter-squad competitions, Forsyth said that the team chemistry is strong.
“Our team ““ as competitive as they are ““ they’re still very well in tune with each other, and they’d rather see each other do well,” Forsyth said.
Uribe said her team is like family, and Joh said the team gets along far better than any team she has been on.
“I don’t remember (the team chemistry) being this good,” Joh said. “It’s such a good blend of personalities ““ everyone’s different.”
Surprisingly enough, their favorite team activity happens to be eating.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met a group of girls so little, yet that can put down so much food,” Joh said. “We make at least a once-a-week trip down to Koreatown. Movies and maybe from time to time karaoke, but definitely eating.”
A key ingredient to the Bruins’ success is their ball-striking and their short game. Golfstat ranked UCLA’s short game No. 1 in the nation.
“This team really has something special,” Forsyth said. “We’ve got the talent. We’ve got the work ethic. We’ve got the motivation.”
In February, the Bruins will play their next tournament, the Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club.
“It’s just a matter for us of maintaining that (motivation) and keeping that through what is a really long season,” Forsyth said. “Going through every event inspired and prepared and completely dialed in is what we’re trying to accomplish as a team.”
The UCLA women’s golf team ““ essentially the same team as last year, only with more experience ““ has one goal in mind.
“The national championship,” Forsyth, Joh and Uribe all said.
Only this year, they will try not to leave it up to mother nature.