The UCLA men’s golf team will be hosting the Gifford Collegiate Championship at CordeValle Country Club in San Martin this week.
The tournament features a stellar field of 14 teams, six of which rank in Golfweek’s top 50. Oklahoma State and Stanford will be in attendance, ranked at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, while the Bruins sit at No. 17.
“This is going to show us how we stack up,” coach Derek Freeman said. “Our job is to first win the Pac-10 championship, and then hopefully we have an opportunity to win a regional and eventually a national championship, and this is going to help prepare us for that.”
The Bruins finished third in last year’s event at CordeValle, and they’re coming off a fourth-place finish in their first tournament of the year after letting go of a first-round lead.
“Golf is such a unique sport, and nothing ever feels quite the same, which means you can have great days and you can have not-so-great days,” Freeman said. “In order to be successful, you have to be able to handle the days that don’t feel so great and play through the challenging times.”
UCLA’s lineup for this week’s tournament features three teams of two players each. However, following the unique six-count-five format, only the top five scores count for the overall team total. Most tournaments are set up as five-count-four events.
Freeman doesn’t seem to mind the six-count-five format.
“It definitely is an advantage to the deeper teams in the tournament, and in a perfect world, you would count every score and nothing would ever get dropped,” Freeman said. “It’s similar to the Pac-10 championships, and we like the format. It just puts more guys out there with an opportunity to play and compete, and that’s what we want.”
Sophomore Gregor Main and freshman Pontus Widegren will lead things off for the Bruins, followed by freshman Pedro Figueiredo and sophomore Alex Shi Yup Kim. A pair of freshmen round out the Bruins’ squad with Bobby Lange and Mario Clemens playing together. Sophomore Beau Schoolcraft will compete individually with his score not eligible to be attributed to the team total.
Figueiredo bursted on to the collegiate golf scene in the first tournament of his UCLA career by shooting 210 (-6) and placing second at the Prestige in Palm Springs last month. As of last week, Figueiredo was ranked at No. 3 in Golfweek’s individual player rankings but was dropped for not meeting required number of tournaments.
But the Portuguese ball striker is not thinking about his position in the rankings.
“I’ve only played one tournament here, and rankings don’t mean all that much to me,” Figueiredo said. “I’m only concerned about my results and trying to get better everyday. If I continue to do that, it will show in the rankings.”
Freeman said that Figueiredo is an unbelievable player.
“He may be a freshman here at UCLA, but he’s played all over the world for the last five years,” Freeman said. “It’s really not a surprise to me that he’s competing in his first event. He’s one of those guys that can come in and make an immediate impact on your team, and that’s exciting for us.”
Freeman acknowledges that his team is young, with four freshmen and his oldest player being a junior. However, he expects to come back to Westwood with a win at CordeValle.
“These guys are young in college experience. However, they’re very experienced in golf. We expect to go in there and play well. The golf course is going to be difficult, and there are going to be some great teams there, but it comes down to a matter of how well we can manage our emotions throughout the event.”
Figueiredo agreed with Freeman’s sentiments and said that the Bruins have the potential to be winning tournaments.
“We just have to be patient and wait for the birdies to come,” Figueiredo said. “I try not to play too aggressively and not stress when I catch a bad break.”