Once again, the UCLA women’s golf team this season could not find a way to finish strong at this week’s Pac-12 championships.
The team was in third place after the third round, but after a well-played second round where they finished with a score of five over-par, the Bruins entered the final round tied for first.
However, they could not finish on the last day and dropped to fourth place with a score of 10 over-par behind Pac-12 rivals Arizona, Oregon and Washington, which placed first, second and third, respectively.
Despite the loss, the Bruins had a pair of encouraging performances from sophomore Bronte Law and senior Erynne Lee. Both finished in the top five standings.
Law finished the event tied for second with a score of five under-par. Although Law recorded 15 birdies throughout the tournament, she also recorded nine bogeys.
Law had a chance to break away and possibly finish first or tie for first, but she scored two bogeys on the last six holes of the third round placing her tied for second.
“To be honest I felt good about my game the whole week, it was just a matter of holing more putts on the last day,” Law said. “The girl that I was paired with, Oregon’s Caroline Inglis, holed a lot of putts, so for me to see that and not get much out of it was difficult, but sometimes it happens and you just have to make sure you finish the best you can.”
Lee finished tied for fifth with a score of three under-par. Her first two rounds resulted in a four under-par and her second round was particularly noteworthy where she recorded six birdies and only three bogeys.
The last round was not as fortunate for Lee. The senior holed five birdies to four birdies. But, she double-bogeyed the ninth hole making it difficult to mount a comeback in the back-nine.
“Personally, I felt that I was striking the ball really well and I’ve been working on my putting so the first two days played great, but in the end we still have a lot of things to work on,” Lee said. “There was nothing dramatic that affected our play on the last day, but we were sloppy in a few areas.”
Junior Louise Ridderstrom finished with 12 over-par; in addition, freshmen Lydia and Erin Choi finished with 16 over-par and 14 over-par, respectively.
The women have played 10 tournaments this season, and in six of those events, the Bruins held a top-three position heading into the final rounds but couldn’t finish with victories.
“I think heading forward, our players really need to work more on their short game because it was our greatest weakness as a team this week,” said coach Carrie Forsyth. “Frankly we need to be a little bit more mentally tough out there and not get too caught up in the circumstances and not getting too nervous. Still, if we just continue to work on our physical game we’ll be more consistent as a team.”
The Bruins leave disappointed, but remain hopeful for the upcoming NCAA regionals and nationals.
The women will participate next in the NCAA Regionals on May 7.
“Being in contention has been a huge thing for us since losing Alison Lee,” Law said. “So moving forward, I think this mentality is something we can build on as a team and take some positives from.”