UCLA men’s golf saved its best
team performance for the third and final day of competition in the desert on
Wednesday, securing itself a top-three finish in La Quinta.
The Bruins matched their result from 2013 by securing the third-place finish overall at 841 (-11) in The Prestige
tournament at PGA West, 10 shots behind winner and co-host Stanford at 831
(-21).
“We’re never excited about third-place finishes; our goal is always to try and win the event,” said coach Derek
Freeman. “What I am happy about is that we played a really good last round
today. We went out and had the goal of trying to shoot the lowest round of the
day, and we came close.”
A sluggish start for UCLA on day
one, with a score of 282 (-2), left the team already trailing the eventual winners
by 13 strokes, and this made a 286 (+2) on Tuesday even more costly, leaving
the Bruins with a share of fifth place and some 19 shots adrift of the leaders.
While this disappointment could
have seen the Bruins drop further down the leaderboard on the final day’s play,
it instead inspired a recovery that saw them battle back to the top three with
a team round of 273 (-11), by far their best effort of the competition.
“We had a talk, and we all knew we
hadn’t played our best,” said senior Anton Arboleda, who finished in the 16th
position at 212 (-1). “Everyone believed that the best was in front of us.
We are pretty proud of ourselves for coming back today and showing that we can
compete with any team in the country, which gives us a confidence boost to take
forward.”
This revival was in no small part because of junior Matt Pinizzotto, who shot a final round 66 (-5) for the team’s
lowest individual total of the competition, catapulting him from 37th
to taking a share of 12th place. This was also his lowest
competitive total as a Bruin.
Sophomore Jonathan Garrick had a strong overall individual performance, carding 209 (-4) and
giving him a share of seventh place, just five shots behind Stanford’s Patrick
Rodgers, who led the field.
“I did a good job of just managing
it and not making too many big mistakes,” Garrick said. “It’s easy to get in
trouble out there, and I managed to avoid it for the most part, so all in all it
was a decent performance.”
Sophomore Lorens Chan carded 212
(-1), and this left him in 16th position, while junior Jay Hwang’s
215 (+2) also saw him finish within the top 30.
Sophomore Jake Knapp, who
participated as an individual, finished with a score of 223 (+10).
Men’s golf’s next outing is not
until March 3 at the Valley Club of Montecito in Santa Barbara, where it will face USC in a one-day exhibition.