The UCLA men’s and women’s golf teams split up this weekend to perform in their penultimate tournaments before they hit a season hiatus until February.
The men took their game to the U.S. Collegiate Championship while the women participated in the Stanford Intercollegiate.
The women’s team had an impressive showing this weekend, placing third as a team with a score of 14-under par. The women were one stroke off from first place, as Stanford and USC tied for first with scores of 15-under par.
“I think we played well, I really do. I’m glad we got the individual champion but I wish we would’ve won today,” said women’s golf coach Carrie Forsyth. “We played well, but the other teams played better, and we got beat by one shot today.”
Despite a mildly disappointing end result for the team, sophomore golfer Bronte Law led the way for the Bruins as she won the individual title for the tournament.
“I wasn’t feeling great this week, but I decided to focus on my game and ignore my conditions,” Law said. “I’ve been playing well at the start of the season this year, and I’ve been playing well all summer, so it was just a matter of carrying my game onto the event.”
Law finished the tournament with a leading score of 8-under par. She exploded on the first day by scoring 6-under par and had an impressive finish on the last day by scoring five birdies on the back nine.
The women said they will take this encouraging performance into the Pac-12 Preview on Nov. 3.
On the other side, the men’s team had another encouraging performance, finishing in fifth place at the U.S. Collegiate Championship.
“So far, the season’s gone pretty well, and I think we played pretty solid in this tournament,” said junior golfer Lorens Chan. “We had a bit of a setback on the second day, but we got it together and played better on the last day.”
The Bruins as a team scored 9 under on the last day, with three players scoring under 70.
Despite a fifth-place finish in a tournament where the top-two teams finished 20-under par, the men are confident heading into the Gifford Collegiate Championship after a hard-fought last round.
“We were a little bit down, but coach (Derek) Freeman told us to finish strong on the last day, so we were able to end respectfully, and I think the last day saved the momentum for the fall season,” Chan said. “I think we have a lot of positive things to go off of heading into the Gifford tournament.”