Just a year and half after fourth-year chemical engineering student Victoria Leon and third-year chemical engineering student Matthew Yoshino founded the UCLA club golf team, they found themselves at Barefoot Resort in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, playing in the National Collegiate Club Golf Association National Championship.
According to NCCGA public relations director Tim Beck, the UCLA team was up against a “fairly open field where anyone had a good chance to win” this past weekend at the National Championship in Myrtle Beach.
Although the club’s vice president Ryan Hendler, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, said the team had originally hoped to break into the top five at the NCCGA Championship , it was only able to place 19th overall. After day one of the two-day stroke play tournament UCLA was tied for 11th place, but on the second day things changed.
“On the second day, we all kind of blew up and ended in 19th,” said Leon, the club’s president.
While the club’s 60 members come from a wide variety of golf backgrounds, many have played since at least high school. Hendler has been playing since he was eight years old.
“Golf takes a lot of time and effort to get really good at,” Hendler said.
While some golfers like Leon, who has been playing since she was 11, and Hendler have a long history on the links, the club is open to all who want to play. Because the team doesn’t have a coach, the more advanced golfers on the team mentor the beginners at practice, teaching them the basics of the game at Sycamore Park on the Hill.
“We do a mentor-mentee system,” Hendler said. “Each advanced player pairs up with a new player to teach them the game. We try to promote giving back to new golfers.”
By helping the new golfers, the 15 players who tried out and made the competitive squad are able to share the game they love. They are also able to continue playing at a high level of competition without the massive time commitment of being on an NCAA team.
“We do have guys that are good enough to try out (for the NCAA team), but it’s not practical for them (given the time commitment),” Hendler said.
Many players on the team have demanding academic schedules or have other commitments, Leon added, and can’t commit to the intensity of the NCAA team. For Leon, that means two chemical engineering upper division classes, an engineering ethics class, and work.
“Half the team we took to nationals was engineers,” she said.
In addition to beginner practices at Sycamore Park, the team goes to a driving range at either Rancho Park or Westchester every Saturday to hit. Recently, the team has also been practicing on Thursdays on the putting green typically reserved for the NCAA golf teams.
“We talked to the coaches of the actual golf team … and they agreed (to let the club practice),” Hendler said. “We’ve been out here every Thursday since the quarter started and will hopefully continue.”
In addition to hitting on the range and practicing on the putting green, the team goes to the Wooden Center for strength training every Wednesday night. Hendler said the goal is to work on golf-specific muscle groups while still staying flexible enough to play efficiently.
Even though all players don’t make the competitive team, everyone gets an opportunity to compete at the team’s annual intra-club tournament.
“It’s a ‘Who’s the best guy at UCLA?’ kind of deal,” Hendler said.
Not that the team is only composed of men: While only one female member, Leon, went to the national championships, there are also intermediate to advanced women on the team as well as several beginners, according to Hendler.
The team’s bid to the NCCGA Championships came on the heels of a successful season so far. After being edged out of second place by Arizona at the first California Regional at Menifee Lakes Country Club in early October, the Bruins came back to beat the Wildcats at the second California Regional two weeks later at Soboba Springs.
After missing a spot in last year’s national championship tournament by one point, UCLA played well enough this season to secure a wildcard slot.
The team will have another opportunity to reach its top-five goal at the spring national championships later this year. However, the field might be tougher then: Beck said the NCCGA hopes to add another 60 collegiate teams before the spring regional season.
That said, Leon is still optimistic about her team’s prospects.
“I’d definitely love to go back in spring, play a lot better, and come home with a trophy,” she said.