Only one week removed from a UCLA victory over top-ranked USC in New Orleans, a disastrous third round resulted in a third-place finish Tuesday afternoon at the fifth annual Bruin Wave Invitational. The women’s golf team will have much less to celebrate this week and more to mull over in the nearly three-week layoff from competition.
After enduring 36 holes squeezed into one day, the Bruins emerged in second position at 2-under par from the second round Monday afternoon. UCLA quickly saw its five-stroke deficit to rival USC rise beyond expectations.
The Trojans turned in an aggregate team score of 290 in the third round, two strokes over par, while the Bruins’ scorecard combined for a score of 308, a whole 20 strokes over par. The collapse in the final round opened the door for the tournament’s co-host Pepperdine, ranked No. 17 nationally, to easily slide into second place. The top three combined teams’ scores were USC at 863 (-1), Pepperdine at 876 (+12) and UCLA at 886 (+22).
”By any stretch of the imagination, we played pretty poorly,” said coach Carrie Forsyth about the sudden downshift in the team’s performance in the last round. “… You can be feeling good about your game, and then go out there and things don’t go your way. And I felt like that … with us today.”
Freshman Alison Lee finished the tournament tied for fourth with a three-round total of 216 at even-par.
“Well, we had to play 36 holes (Monday) so that (was) really mentally and physically draining,” Lee said.
Despite the poor day three score, the Bruins did have a shining spot among the day’s bleakness early on when junior Erynne Lee, on the par-3 sixth hole, sunk a hole in one. It wasn’t her first time doing so at the El Caballero Country Club course.
“Actually last year, same course, same tournament, I had one on hole 16,” Erynne Lee said.
UCLA will now have nearly three weeks off before it looks to bounce back strong in its next competition on March 24.
“I think this little gap is exactly what we need,” Forsyth said.