Having not played in a tournament since the Collegiate Match Play in early November, the top-ranked UCLA women’s golf team looks to compete in the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge that kicks off today.
USC and Ohio State host the three-day tournament that will take place at the Palos Verdes Golf Club.
The Bruins have played at Palos Verdes before. Coach Carrie Forsyth said that the most challenging part of the competition is the course itself.
“I think it’s the kind of course that if you’re hitting the ball well, you can score out here,” Forsyth said. “But it’s a very tough golf course, so mentally it always poses some challenges. So if you don’t get off to a good start, it can be tough to score if you’re not hitting the ball where you need to.”
The Bruins will need a game with little error in order to do well this week.
“You have to be sharp on all levels of your game, which is hard your first tournament back,” senior Tiffany Joh said. “Palos Verdes is very hilly. You have to be very accurate with your irons. You have to be smart about placing your second shots into the holes. Everything is very challenging about this course.”
Joh said that the greens are undulated, and they tend to be very quick.
To prepare for the tournament, the Bruins played several qualifying rounds to sharpen their game and to determine the lineup that will be playing this week. Joh, sophomores Maria Jose Uribe and Glory Yang, junior Sydnee Michaels and freshman Stephanie Kono will be playing in the travel lineup. Senior Ryann O’Toole will play as an individual competitor.
Forsyth said that the team used the break to work on the mechanics of their swings, to practice their putting strokes, and to deal with equipment issues.
“Now we’re able to move beyond working on swings, and now we’re able to focus on playing,” Forsyth said.
The Bruins tried to focus their practices on maintaining mental toughness, what Forsyth called “the things that will help us play well at this particular golf course” during the tournament.
“For a majority of the girls, they haven’t competed since the end of October,” Forsyth said. “So we’ve been trying to do some inter-squad competitions to promote that competitiveness and that mindset.”
One of those rounds was held at Palos Verdes.
“It was kind of funny because since it was our first competitive round coming back, everyone was a little rusty,” Joh said. “It was actually a good wake-up call for us. We didn’t play great. It wasn’t extremely pretty. But it was a really good kick in the pants for us to start working hard again.”
Despite its difficulty, Uribe said that Palos Verdes is “definitely a course we know very well because it is so close to campus.”
“That course and how difficult it is ““ our history there ““ it definitely adds a little extra pressure,” Joh said. “But I’m really confident in the team and how everyone (will be) playing there.”
Another local team that practices at Palos Verdes is No. 3 USC, which Joh said the Bruins “ran into” during their qualifier at Palos Verdes.
“There was a little extra tension,” Joh said, “But nothing we couldn’t handle.”
Along with USC, No. 2 Arizona State will also be one of UCLA’s toughest competitors at the tournament. The Sun Devils revamped their entire roster this winter after losing their No. 1 player, Anna Nordqvist, who turned professional following the 2008 fall season. With the addition of sophomore transfer Jaclyn Sweeney from Oklahoma State and incoming freshmen Carlota Ciganda and Giulia Molinaro, the new team will makes its debut at the Regional Challenge this week.