Over the past few days, the UCLA women’s golf team proved why it is ranked No. 1 in the nation with a record-breaking performance that could define the season. Under somewhat rainy conditions, the Bruins, led by freshmen Alison Lee and Bronte Law, were victorious in the Betsy Rawls Invitational.
Playing against 14 other Division 1 schools, the team finished the tournament with a final round score of 275 (-13), five strokes better than the old tournament record. After also breaking the three-day-total record by 21 strokes, the team pointed to better-than-usual conditions in Texas that allowed them the opportunity to put up such low numbers.
“It did rain and the weather was not good, but the golf course was soft and we were able to get our approach shots pretty close,” said coach Carrie Forsyth.
The story of the tournament was Lee, who, playing in only her second collegiate tournament ever, broke the Betsy Rawls Invitational 54-hole record with an individual score of 204 (-12). Placing second and first overall in back-to-back tournaments certainly impressed her coach, who believes she can become a star.
“She’s definitely one of the top players in the country,” Forsyth said. “She has the talent and the mindset, so the sky’s pretty much the limit for her.”
Lee’s individual efforts have earned her recognition around the country, and she was extremely humbled by her performance and happy with her iron play.
“I was striking the ball really well and gave myself a lot of chances by hitting the fairway and than hitting great approach shots,” Lee said.
Although Lee played great individually, she was more proud of how the team played as a whole and believes this year’s group of women has a chance to be great.
“It feels awesome because the whole team played great today,” Lee said. “I think we have a really great team this year and were all playing really well right now.”
Another freshman phenom, Bronte Law, also had an excellent tournament, and finished off with a final round 67.
“We started off the week really well,” Law said. “It was just a matter of going out there and shooting the numbers that we knew we could.”
The team plays a tournament at Stanford in a couple weeks, but has this victory to celebrate and improve off of for the rest of the offseason.
“It felt great to get the win,” Forsyth said. “Overall this tournament I felt like we were hitting the ball really well, so all we needed were a few putts to roll in, and they did.”