The UCLA men’s golf team’s last chance to get a victory this fall season begins today at the Gifford Collegiate Championship. The tournament, hosted by UCLA, will take place at the Pelican Hill Golf Club.
The Bruins have managed to finish strong in the two tournaments they have played, placing second and fifth, respectively, but are still in search of their first victory of the fall season. Coach Derek Freeman said the fall season had its ups and downs and that the offseason will be a good time to improve before starting again in February.
“We’ve had some good moments, we’ve had some not-so-good moments,” Freeman said. “Overall our guys have done a nice job getting better, working hard. I think this offseason will be a good critical time to address the weaknesses in everyone’s game.”
The Bruins won the tournament last year, but will have their work cut out for them if they hope to repeat as champions this year against a strong field that features defending national champion Alabama, which has yet to lose a tournament this season.
Sophomore Jonathan Garrick said he feels the pressure but believes the team is ready to do well in the tournament.
“There is always a little bit of added pressure at your home event, but we look forward to see how we stack up against the competition,” Garrick said. “We are playing in (Alabama’s) group the first 36 holes so we will get to see how they play and hopefully beat them.”
The entire team will be participating in the tournament, but the players whose scores will count toward the overall team score for the tournament will be Garrick, junior Preston Valder, senior Anton Arboleda, junior Matt Pinizzotto and sophomore Lorens Chan.
Another difference from last year’s tournament will be the venue. Last year, the tournament was played at CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, Calif., but now the location has changed to the Ocean North Course at Pelican Hill Golf Club, in Newport Coast, Calif. Although Chan said he is sad to see last year’s venue go, he hopes that Pelican Hill will be close enough to bring out some fans to the tournament.
“I think it’s nice that it’s a little close to campus so we can get a little bigger fan base out here,” Chan said. “It would be fun if there (were) a lot of Bruin fans out here to cheer us on.”