One win, and two really close losses. This is what the competition between the crosstown women’s golf rivals UCLA and USC has looked like since the start of the spring golf season.
A few weeks ago, No. 20 UCLA wiped No. 1 USC off the leaderboard and just last week USC edged UCLA out of first place in a playoff round.
On Tuesday, however, USC added another win to its tally, as the Bruins fell two strokes short of beating the Trojans, ending the Bruin Wave Invitational in second place.
“It’s frustrating to know that we were so close and it came down to a couple strokes,” sophomore Erynne Lee said.
“It sucks knowing that I could have done something if I made a couple of strokes here or there.”
Focusing too heavily on their standings on the leaderboard and the outcome of their swings strongly influenced the team’s play on the second day, according to Lee.
“We just lost track of where we were as a team,” Lee said. “We were all struggling mentally and physically on the golf course. Instead of being in the moment, we were looking at results and outcomes.”
What was once UCLA’s biggest strength became its greatest weakness Tuesday, as the women were unable to play a good short game.
“I don’t know if it was a little bit of fatigue but I felt like our short game was not very good (on Tuesday) at all and that really hurt us,” coach Carrie Forsyth said.
Despite their unsatisfactory play on the second day, the Bruins were still able to maintain their high standing, with all five UCLA women ending the meet in the top 15.
“That is how you win tournaments,” Forsyth said. “If you have three or four of your players finishing in the top 10 or top 15, you’re probably going to win or come close.”
The real contention came from senior Tiffany Lua who started the competition off with three bogies and one double bogie, but managed to cut her score down to one stroke under par, finishing second overall.
“I struggled a lot with my putter coming into this tournament,” Lua said. “But I see little improvements and I am still happy to be competing again.”
Senior Lee Lopez, former champion of this competition, had an opposite result as she scored even on the first day, landing in first place.
She did not fare as well on the second day. After a few bogies and one double bogey, she fell to fifth place, where she stayed for the remainder of the competition.
With the stress of school finals coming up, the Bruins will take it easy over the next few weeks until they are back in action in the Hawaii Spring Invitational.
“We have two and a half weeks to work on everything – especially our short game – and hopefully we can get our game sharper for the next tournament,” Lua said.