Sometimes the smallest of tasks can turn out to be the most frustrating.
And after a failed attempt in bringing home NCAA championship No. 106 this past week, the UCLA women’s golf team can attest to that.
“There was honestly two holes that completely destroyed us,” senior Sydnee Michaels said.
Those two holes were not long and narrow par 4s, nor were they daunting par 5s that stretch past 500 yards in length.
What did the Bruins in and played a huge part in their disappointing sixth-place finish were two par 3s, the longer of the two measuring only 157 yards off the tee.
While winning a national championship on a difficult course is no small task, one could have bet that a solid ball-striking team like the Bruins would have no problem on holes that demand accuracy.
Instead, the team shot a horrendous collective score of at least 20 strokes over par throughout the week on the two holes alone. Complete Tournament statistics were not available at press time.
Playing into the wind and providing the golfers with a narrow landing strip of a green that seemed to be surrounded by an ocean, No. 2 and No. 16 at the Landfall Country Club packed a punch.
“(Both of the holes) demanded a lot visually”, junior Glory Yang said. “But it doesn’t help when you’re last and see all the groups ahead hitting in the water.”
The Bruins were poised and ready to win a championship before competition began.
They had been awarded the No. 1 overall seed in the Tournament and were teeming with confidence.
They started out with two mediocre rounds of 288 (E) and 292 (+4) that kept them in contention. But a devastating round of 302 (+14) on Thursday put UCLA’s title hopes to rest.
“The third day is what killed us. We made some mistakes coming in when we needed to bring it. … It just wasn’t our time,” said Michaels, whose final round 71 (-1) marked her last appearance in collegiate competition.
The Bruins did attempt a final-day comeback, but it was not enough. They shot a 287 (-1) as a team on Friday but still ended up 16 strokes behind 2010 national champion Purdue.
While Michaels saw the Bruins frustrations as a result of unlucky competitive timing, others on the team, such as Yang, took the sixth place finish more personally.
“I put too much pressure on myself and it threw me off a little,” Yang said,”I should have been more conservative and I picked too aggressive of lines to the pin to shoot at.”
While the end to the season was disappointing, the young Bruin squad will use this experience as a building block for next year. Michaels will be the only departing player this offseason and the remaining Bruins will have this week’s finish to fuel their drive for next season.
“We saw our competitors holding the trophy and it was painful to see,” Yang said. “We now know our weaknesses and we need to make them our strengths.”
While the players may want to focus on the future, the present will no doubt linger in their minds for the time being.
“I don’t think (the sixth-place finish) reflects what kind of team we are. Those teams that beat us, they’re not better than we are,” Michaels said. “For whatever reason our timing wasn’t there. It happens. We had a strong season but sixth place doesn’t sum it up.”