After placing ninth in the friendly confines of nearby Westlake Village, the No. 11 UCLA men’s golf team will try its luck in Las Vegas this weekend.
The Bruins will be competing in the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters, hosted by University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Coach Derek Freeman is taking his most experienced lineup into the tournament with his only junior, Connor Driscoll, looking to provide some much-needed leadership on a team that features no seniors. Joining Driscoll will be sophomores Alex Shi Yup Kim and Gregor Main, as well as freshmen Pontus Widegren and Pedro Figueiredo.
Main and Kim are looking to continue their consistent play after finishing tied for fifth and tied for eighth, respectively, in the USC Invitational last week.
“Alex is playing great. It’s something that we’re really encouraged about. He’s worked really hard over the last year and a half in our system, and he just continues to get better,” Freeman said in a press conference Monday.
Kim fired a second-round score of 65 (-6) at the USC Invitational, something that he said he looks to build on this weekend.
“I just need to stay patient out there and not think about my overall score,” Kim said. “I’m just going to take it one hole at a time.”
The field of teams at the Southern Highlands Collegiate features 11 of the top-20 ranked teams, including the No. 1 Oklahoma State Cowboys and the No. 4 Texas Longhorns.
“Las Vegas is one of our favorite events,” Freeman said of the level of competition. “It’s an outstanding field every year. It’s going to demand that you play well, so the top teams are going to be there, and you want to show what you’ve got against the top competition in the country.”
Kim mentioned that the Bruins will see some teams this weekend that they haven’t seen in the past.
“It will be good to see how we stack up against those teams that we haven’t played and that are ranked high,” Kim said.
Freeman said that his team has been playing well in the middle holes of their rounds, but that hasn’t translated to lower scores.
“We start off poorly, and we finish poorly,” Freeman said. “Everything in between is very good. … Our guys need to learn to capitalize when they can, and they need to work on finishing their golf rounds.”
Main, who has been the Bruins’ most consistent player this season, will be looking to card another top-five finish this weekend.
“It’s just a matter of time before he wins an event,” Freeman said of Main.
Above all, Freeman said that his team is just anxious to tee it up.
“Our guys are really looking forward to it,” he said. “They really want to play well. I think it’s a tournament where if you spend your time correctly during the practice round, you can establish some momentum, so it’s exciting for our guys, and they’re ready to get there.”