The scene is a familiar one.
Earlier this year, the UCLA women’s golf team played in a preseason tournament at the Country Club of Landfall golf course in Wilmington, N.C. They finished in second, losing by one stroke to Duke.
But as they begin competition on the same course today, the stakes have been raised, and it is a completely different scenario.
The course has been transformed into a pressure cooker that will demand the team’s skills be pushed to the limit.
UCLA will compete against the best schools in the nation, all vying for the same trophy.
And the Bruins will have to deal with all of this with a target on their back.
This time, they enter the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed, looking to bring home UCLA’s 106th NCAA Championship.
The No. 1 ranking is something the Bruins have had to deal with for the majority of their 2009-2010 season. It serves as both a burden and a constant reminder of where they stand in the collegiate golf world.
They started off the year ranked No. 1 and have not looked back. So when the team was faced with the pressure and expectations of a top-seeded ranking throughout the season, they simply shrugged their shoulders and responded with their golf game.
“(The No. 1 ranking) gives us confidence. We know we are good enough and we deserve this,” junior Glory Yang said.
That kind of attitude has exuded from coach Carrie Forsyth’s players since they began postseason play a month ago.
“It’s just another tournament. … That’s the key,” Yang said. “We need to be on our game and not think of winning so much. We’re preparing for this tournament like any other one.”
The Landfall course is one that will put the eventual champion through the gauntlet. Yang stressed how this particular course makes those who play on it think about all the aspects of the game at all times. The team has been practicing everything from short-game basics to course management.
How the Bruins fare this week will depend greatly on how they manage themselves around the lengthy championship course. The course is longer than what the team usually plays on, but since their rotation is full of solid ball strikers, according to Forsyth, the extended length of the course should not pose too large a problem for the Bruins.
The area where the team will be tested, as they have been all year, is on the greens. In NCAA competition, the competitors are presented with extremely difficult conditions, and the greens are usually cut short and flattened. In order for the Bruins to walk away with the title, they will have to solve the problem of figuring out their putters and get a few clutch putts to drop along the way.
“It is going to take a good overall game,” Yang said. “We, as a team, have been focusing a lot on short game. But we are also confident in our ball striking. We are certain that we are going to hit a lot of good shots.”
The squad of Yang, sophomore Brianna Do, sophomore Stephanie Kono, freshman Tiffany Lua, and All-American senior Sydnee Michaels has been the No. 1 ranked team in the nation and, at times, they have played like it. The season has been full of close calls and second-place finishes, but they have a pair of event wins under their belts.
If all five members of the Bruin rotation can contribute and play in the solid style that has become their trademark, they have a shot at bringing UCLA’s 106th championship back to Westwood.