M. golf competes at Stanford tournament
By Hye Kwon
Daily Bruin Staff
With a week left to go before postseason play begins, the UCLA
men’s golf team will compete in the U.S. Intercollegiate Golf
Tournament in Palo Alto starting today.
The three-day tournament hosted by Stanford will feature some of
the top teams in the country. The field of competition will include
No. 2 Stanford, No. 9 Arizona State and No. 15 Tulsa, among
others.
For UCLA, the tournament will be a good warm-up for the
Pacific-10 Championships, as nine of the 10 conference teams will
be present in Palo Alto.
Weather conditions might prove to be a factor this weekend. As
of Thursday afternoon, it was windy and a few drops of rain
sprinkled on the course. And, given that the Stanford Golf Course
is located in the hills above the San Francisco Bay, the wind will
likely be a factor as well.
Barring the unfavorable weather conditions, the newly renovated
golf course itself might be a challenge to the players.
"We just got a brand new set of traps and new greens," Stanford
assistant coach Sarah Hollock said. "The greens are getting there.
For sure they’re not as fast as they’re going to be."
That’s good news for the Bruins, who have not done well this
season on courses with fast greens. In their last competition at
the Sun Devil Invite, the Bruins ran into a course known for the
fast greens, and UCLA finished tied for 12th place. It was the
fourth time in the last five tournaments that the struggling Bruins
have finished out of the top 10.
Individually, Mike Miller and Lance Graville were UCLA’s top
finishers at 223. Miller finished with a 75-73-75 and Graville with
a 72-73-78.