Despite a comeback on Sunday that led to a fourth round berth, UCLA women’s golf could not advance into the top-eight playoffs and ended its season finishing in 15th place at the NCAA championship.
The Bruins had an up-and-down weekend as they struggled for most of the tournament, particularly in the first two rounds.
The team was off to a bad start on Friday when it finished the round with a score of 31-over par – its worst single round of the season.
Sophomore Bronte Law, the No. 2 player in the country, finished the first day with a 7-over par, including a triple bogey on the seventh hole.
The Bruins’ most seasoned player and No. 14 in the country, senior Erynne Lee, didn’t fare much better, recording an 11-over par, which included a triple bogey on the third hole and a quadruple bogey on the seventh.
“For a few of our players, the course played really long, and it was difficult to hole the greens with our irons,” said coach Carrie Forsyth. “But mostly, it was short game woes with our chipping and putting, and we just couldn’t get the hang of the difficult course.”
Things slightly improved in the second round as the team moved up the leaderboard, even tying for 13th in the then-24-team field at one point.
However, an uncharacteristic score of 13 on a par-4 hole No. 8 by Lee contributed to a second round team score of 30-over par and pushed the team out of the top 15.
“It was really hard mentally to finish that second round after that eighth hole and go on to play the next two rounds,” Lee said. “It took a lot of discipline and toughness, and after our assistant coach Alicia Um-Holmes walked with me during the third round, it put me in a much better mindset.”
UCLA would mount a comeback in the third round, posting an impressive team score of 5-over par and making it into the top-15 cut.
Lee finished at even par after a standout front-nine performance which saw her score four birdies and no bogeys.
Law posted her best round of the tournament with a 1-under par; her par on the ninth hole gave the Bruins a fourth-round berth.
“For me, I was coming in with a hip injury that I suffered right before we got here and it certainly didn’t make things easy out there,” Law said. “But really, I’m just proud of how the team fought all weekend, and the fact that I was able to par on the last day and get us into the top 15 meant a lot because we were able to play another round and compete.”
The Bruins started the fourth round at 66-over par, 16 strokes behind the eight-team cutoff margin, but couldn’t muster up more comeback magic to enter the top eight.
They finished with a 15-over par in the last round and an 81-over par for the tournament.
Overall, the team had its fair share of struggles, but it also had its moments.
Law was the team’s best scorer and tied for 18th with an 11-over par.
Lee concluded her last event as a collegiate athlete by rebounding in the last two rounds and tying for 51st with a 23-over par.
Junior Louise Ridderstrom was the team’s scoring leader after the first round with a 4-over par, but she ended up tying for 51st as well with an overall total of 23-over par.
Freshman Erin Choi tied for 62nd and freshman Lydia Choi placed 79th. However, the former had a notable performance on Sunday, shooting 1-over par to help the Bruins make their push toward the top 15.
“I was so pleased with how the team played in the third round and heading into the fourth round because they had to fight for it, and I thought they did a good job of that,” Forsyth said. “To us it was a small miracle and overall it was awesome to come back the way we did to at least make the top 15, considering how tough it was after posting back-to-back days with 30-over par; the tournament wasn’t all horrible for us.”