After falling all the way to 19th place in the second round of the NCAA championship, the UCLA men’s golf team fought back in the third round to claim one of eight slots in the match-play quarterfinals. But just like last year, the team stopped short of a title.
“It was a very difficult golf course, and it was a long 72 holes. The more holes you play, the better you have to play, (since) the top teams rise to the top,” said coach Derek Freeman.
On Tuesday, the match-play quarterfinals continued after four rounds of the NCAA men’s golf championship. Just making the cut in the final round, the Bruins claimed the last spot with a total team score of 20-over par. With notable play by senior Preston Valder and junior Jonathan Garrick in the third round, who both yielded scores of 4-under par, the team posted the best score of the day at 8-under par.
“After the second round, I brushed it off. I mean, I was upset, but I didn’t let it bother me,” Garrick said. “I just went out the next day and played another round, (which) turned out to be a good one. I did a good job of rebounding after the bad round.”
In the match-play quarterfinals, the Bruins were paired with No. 1 seed Illinois. In the quarterfinals, all five players of each team play against their counterparts for 18 holes. The Bruins would have had to claim three matches in order to advance to semifinals.
“(Illinois) won the stroke play portion so they played better than everybody else, so we knew that it would be (a) very difficult match-play opponent,” Freeman said. “But we really liked our individual matches that we got. We thought we had a chance in all the matches that we played and we did.”
While UCLA redshirt senior Manav Shah and junior Jake Knapp were defeated by Illinois golfers Thomas Detry and Charlie Danielson, respectively, junior Lorens Chan defeated opponent Dylan Meyer 4 and 2. Following Chan’s win, Garrick also beat his opponent, tying up the match 2-2.
Everything came down to Valder’s match against Illinois golfer Nick Hardy. They were all square up to the final two remaining holes. However, Valder double-bogeyed on the 17th while Hardy parred, sending Illinois to the semifinals.
“For me, it was really important because it is something that I worked toward all year, and this is probably my best finish of the year,” Valder said. “So for me to come out having my best tournament of the year at nationals was just a lot of fun for me to help my team that way.”
Although the team ended up exactly where it did last year – seeded in the same place and reaching the match-play quarterfinals – the Bruins did improve from last year. Compared to last year’s 4-1 loss in match play, the Bruins’ loss of 3-2 against one of the best men’s golf teams in the nation showed more than the loss itself.
“They’ll keep building off those principles that we’ve all been doing for four years,” Valder said. “They will come out better next year.”