The fun of March Madness does not only apply to college basketball.
The UCLA men’s golf team got into the madness when it lost in its own final four at the Callaway Collegiate Match Play Championship.
The Bruins fell to Indiana to finish in third place March 24.
But the third-place finish may be the spark the Bruins need to reach and do well in the postseason. The Bruins are coming off a few rough tournaments, and a solid finish in a competitive field may be as good for their confidence as a win.
Erik Flores, the team’s senior leader, finished in a tie for second in the qualifying rounds. UCLA also had two big contributions from freshman Beau Schoolcraft and sophomore Connor Driscoll, two golfers who weren’t even on the traveling roster at the beginning of the spring season.
“I think it is a step in the right direction for our team,” Driscoll said. “We haven’t been performing as well as we should be over the past few months.”
Driscoll was the only Bruin victorious in his match, while freshman Gregor Main and Flores tied their opponents, and sophomore Philip Francis and Schoolcraft fell, resulting in the 2-1-2 loss to Indiana.
The Bruins were faced with a unique situation against the Hoosiers, because only two of the matches were finished Monday before the other three were delayed due to darkness.
The final few holes of the three matches were postponed until the next morning, when Flores rallied to halve his match after being down one. Main was up one, but ended up halving his match as well. Francis trailed his match the entire way, and finished down one.
There was a two-round qualifying period prior to the match play, in which the team competed using regular scoring, and the top eight teams out of the 16 competing would be seeded in the championship bracket.
UCLA was in last place after the first round, but came back to finish fifth and reach the championship bracket behind Flores’ two-round total of 140 (-4) and Schoolcraft’s second round of 71 (-1).
Coming off a solid round, Schoolcraft’s confidence was high coming into the match play portion, and he performed well, winning two of his three matches.
“In match play, I definitely try to play more aggressive,” Schoolcraft said. “You have to make more birdies.”
In the match play round of eight, the Bruins defeated fourth-seeded Texas A&M 4-0-1, with Flores, Main, Francis and Schoolcraft recording wins, while Driscoll came back from three holes down to tie his match. All four of the Bruin victories were dominating performances ““ they won their four matches by a combined 15 holes.
“It’s a lot more fun,” Driscoll said of match play. “You are just playing one person at a time, so you get to base your decisions on what your opponent is doing.”
The Bruins’ next test is Sunday at the U.S. Collegiate Championship in Georgia. The team will look to carry forward its momentum from this tournament into the next few events. If the young players continue to contribute like they did in match play, the Bruins think they will make some noise in the postseason.
“There are definitely expectations to do well this year at nationals,” Schoolcraft said. “This just gave us a little more confidence to prove what we can do.”