The men’s golf team continues its spring campaign at The Prestige at PGA WEST this upcoming Monday.
The Bruins struggled to start fast in last week’s invitational, but had a strong final round to build off of heading into next week’s event.
Providing a boost will be junior Jake Knapp, who returns after playing at the Farmers Insurance Open the previous week.
“The team struggled and because of the long break, we haven’t played a tournament since November,” Knapp said. “But everybody’s getting back to the swing of things so it’ll be really important that we go out there to the best of our ability and execute the game plan.”
Although Knapp has returned, junior Jonathan Garrick will be absent for The Prestige as he prepares to play in the Northern Trust Open Collegiate Showcase. Losing Garrick will be a blow for this week as he largely helped the Bruins in the last tournament with a score of -7 in the final round.
The team will have to step up and play well without another veteran player for the second straight week, but there is hope that other players can step up to the challenge.
“We just have to trust what we’re doing in preparation and we’ve certainly gotten some good practices in for preparation,” said junior Lorens Chan. “Even though we don’t have Jonathan this week, it gives the other teammates more opportunities to play and get in shape for when Pac-12s come.”
Despite losing another player for the second straight tournament, the team is optimistic moving forward particularly in the upcoming event where the Bruins might have a slight edge.
“It starts with how we show up for preparation and how well we perform in our practice rounds,” said assistant coach Brandon Christianson. “This year the course has changed and other teams that travel from further away haven’t been on it, and fortunately for us, most of our guys have played on the course so we should have a leg up on the competition.”
Still, even with the advantage presented before the Bruins, they will have to execute and undoubtedly start fast to avoid falling behind again.
“We need to be holing putts right from the start, converting pars and making birdies as soon as we get going,” Christianson said. “Something we’ve been lacking in the early rounds has been momentum, so if we can make good putts, it’ll give us the momentum we need to be successful.”