W. golf second at Pac-10 Championship
Arizona State nabs
title; Jennifer Choi sixth individually
By Hye Kwon
Daily Bruin Staff
In an amazing display of consistency, the UCLA women’s golf team
posted a three-day score of 297-297-297 to capture second place at
the Pacific-10 Championships in Corvallis, Ore., Wednesday
afternoon.
At the Trysting Tree Country Club, the fifth-ranked Bruins
turned in one of their best performances of the season to finish
second behind No. 1 Arizona State. And, according to head coach
Jackie Tobian-Steinmann, the Bruins accomplished that feat on a
tough golf course.
"It was a very difficult course," Tobian-Steinmann said. "It was
long, the greens were undulated and the pins were at unbelievable
positions."
But rather than folding in the presence of adversity, the Bruins
rose to the occasion. UCLA placed four of its five golfers in the
top 17. Jennifer Choi led UCLA with a sixth-place finish, and was
followed by Kathy Choi in 10th place, Betty Chen in 15th and
Jeong-Min Park in 17th.
"They played with some very good spirit," Tobian-Steinmann said.
"They were rooting for each other and it made a difference."
After day one it became clear that Arizona State would run away
with the title and the rest of the field would have to compete for
second place. The Sun Devils shot a 286 in round one and led their
nearest challenger, Stanford, by nine strokes. Arizona State kept
their intensity up all throughout the tournament and ended with a
858, 33 strokes better than the Bruins.
ASU’s Kellee Booth finished the third round with a course record
of 66 strokes, but the remarkable fact is that she finished the
tournament in third place with 213. Her teammate, Wendy Ward,
captured the individual title with 211.
"I feel like we won the tournament because ASU was just out of
reach," Tobian-Steinmann said. "Their golfers are some of the best
golfers in the country."
Excluding the Sun Devils, the competition was extremely close.
The margin separating UCLA and fifth place Oregon was just seven
strokes. Stanford finished at 896, Arizona at 897 and Oregon at
898.
The next mission for the Bruins is the NCAA Western Regionals.
After a good weekend showing, Tobian-Steinmann feels confident.
"There are some areas in which we must improve on, but I feel
we’re in good shape for the Regionals," Tobian-Steinmann said.
Other than the Pac-10 team title, the All Pac-10 teams were
decided at Corvallis, and the names of three Bruins appeared on the
list.
Senior Jennifer Choi made second team All Pac-10, while junior
Kathy Choi and sophomore Jeong-Min Park received honorable
mentions.