In fourth place after three rounds, the UCLA men’s golf team seemed poised to continue climbing the leaderboard and to overtake one of the top three spots at the Pac-10 Championships at ASU’s Karsten Golf Course. Then came Wednesday’s final round.
The No. 4 Bruins shot 370 (+15) to fall four spots and finish in eighth place in their first postseason tournament. Their final-round total score was the highest turned in by any team in the event. The Bruins’ bookend rounds could not have been more different after they carded an opening round of 340 (-15) on Monday.
Coach Derek Freeman was not pleased with what he saw from his team in the crucial final round.
“It’s absolutely and totally unacceptable,” Freeman said. “From a team like this, with this type of experience and as much golf as they’ve played, it’s unacceptable, so they’ve got to get better. There are no excuses for us to play like this. It was six guys that weren’t prepared to play golf.”
Sophomore Gregor Main was also frustrated with his and his teammates’ play on Wednesday.
“As a team, we just struggled today,” Main said. “You can’t really have those days if you want to win these tournaments because the Pac-10 is really strong.”
The Bruins hung around in the middle rounds, staying under par with rounds of 353 (-2) and 351 (-4) in the second and third rounds, respectively.
But staying under par wasn’t enough to keep up with what was going on at the top of the leaderboard. The No. 2 Stanford Cardinal posted a first-round score of 330 (-25) while Washington, Arizona State and USC weren’t far behind. The Huskies would go on to win the championship, overcoming a seven-stroke deficit to beat Stanford by three shots. The Cardinal, much like the Bruins, collapsed in the final round by shooting 363 (+8).
The Bruins were ranked third among Pac-10 teams entering the tournament, behind Stanford and Oregon, but finished behind No. 6 Washington, No. 10 USC, No. 13 ASU, No. 23 Oregon State, and No. 35 California.
“After you get so far behind, you start playing for pride, and you start playing for the name of UCLA, and you start playing for this team, and they didn’t rise up to that challenge,” Freeman said of his team’s effort this week.
Main was the Bruins’ top finisher at 273, (-11) putting him in a tie for fourth place with Stanford’s Joseph Bramlett. Main fired a third-round score of 64 (-7) to help put him in contention. California’s Eric Mina took home the individual championship with a 268, (-16) followed by Arizona State’s Jesper Kennegard at 269 (-15) and Washington’s Richard Lee at 270 (-14).
Freshman Pontus Widegren finished in a tie for 20th with a score of 282 (-2). Fellow freshman Mario Clemens joined Main and Widegren as the only Bruins to finish under par, coming in one stroke behind Widegren to tie for 26th. Clemens has come on as of late and secured the fifth spot in the Bruins’ lineup.
Main said that the Bruins can only look ahead as they now have the better part of a month to prepare for the NCAA Regional.
“We’re all going to have to be on top of our games to win; so, we’ve got to prepare hard these next three weeks,” Main said.
Freeman was at a loss for words when asked how his team could be better prepared.
“I’ve got to spend the next week to really try to get an understanding for why this happened,” Freeman said. “(This week) was a lack of preparation emotionally, mentally and physically.”