Over the past few weeks, golf course greens all throughout Southern California have gone through aeration, rendering most golf courses in the area unplayable. This, however, opened the door for the UCLA women’s golf team to spend time practicing the little things on the range.
Beginning on Sunday, the No. 4 Bruins will participate in the Betsy Rawls Invitational at the University of Texas. The women will start off playing alongside Alabama and UT on the first day, but their scores will go up against a total of 14 other schools, including 4 from last year’s top 25.
Last year, UCLA finished eighth in the tournament, but coach Carrie Forsyth said she believes that the field isn’t as challenging this year as it was last year.
“It’s a pretty familiar group of teams that we’ve seen before,” Forsyth said. “The field this year is not as strong as it has been when we’ve played in the past, but there are still some pretty darn good teams that will be competing.”
To open the 2013-2014 season, the Bruins triumphed in the Mason Rudolph Championship in Franklin, Tenn., earning a 20-stroke victory and momentum going into this weekend. Nonetheless, the team is still more interested in measuring its level of play in real competition than it is in winning every tournament before the season even starts.
“The tournament is important because we’re coming off of a big win, but I think seeing what we look like will be really more interesting than anything else,” Forsyth said.
Although Forsyth knows that each of her players has her own strengths and weaknesses, this week all the women worked on their pitching from 20 to 50 yards in addition to their personal practicing.
“Some people need to work on their putting, and some people on their ball-striking, so everyone has got different key things they’ve been focusing on over the past week,” Forsyth said.
The tournament is held at the University of Texas Golf Club, a course that a few of the women have played at before, including senior Ani Gulugian and freshman Alison Lee. The course is noticeably narrower than most, with bushes surrounding the fairway and very sloped greens, so the weather conditions will be key according to Forsyth.
“It’s a really good golf course,” Forsyth said. “I think a lot of it depends on the weather because it can be super windy, and if the greens are firm and fast then it can play really tough.”
After having a good week of practice in spite of the unforeseen green maintenance, the team looks to improve upon its performance from last year and find out how good it can really be this season.
Compiled by Joshua Zarouri, Bruin Sports contributor.