The players on the UCLA men’s golf team were disappointed in themselves after this weekend’s General Jim Hackler Invitational. They finished 12th in a 14-team field, without a single golfer finishing in the top 15 of the individual standings.
Despite the team’s poor performance, all of the players agreed that they can learn from this tournament and they still believe in the capability of their team to move forward.
The optimism embraced by many of the players helped boost team morale after a few unimpressive days in South Carolina, but all the golfers owned up to mistakes and acknowledged lackluster results. The Bruins were led by freshman Gregor Main and senior Erik Flores, who posted scores of 224 (+8) and 225 (+9), respectively, over three rounds, both good for top-20 finishes.
“I don’t really feel like anyone played the course smartly on our team,” Flores said. “That, on top of poor execution, led to high numbers.”
Flores double-bogeyed the par-3 fifth hole twice in three rounds, hitting the ball in the water both times. Yet he had the best round of the team, a 2-under round of 70 on Sunday afternoon.
He said he is looking to use that strong round as motivation for the next tournament.
Main was the most consistent UCLA golfer, carding no double-bogeys through the first 50 holes until he made two doubles in a row on the 15th and 16th holes of the final round.
“Most of my problems came from chipping and putting,” Main said, “A lot of my teammates had problems with hazards, but I couldn’t get the ball in from 10 feet away.”
One of the standouts of the season so far has been sophomore Philip Francis, but Francis never got on track this weekend. He finished with a score of 236 (+20) in a tie for 62nd place.
“We played as bad as we could; I know I did.” Francis said. “I haven’t had that type of tournament in a long time.”
“We can only go up from here.” Francis said. “I have complete faith.”
The two other golfers competing for UCLA were Alex Kim and James Lee, who shot 237 (+21) and 247 (+31), respectively. Despite his high score, Kim didn’t have a double-bogey the entire tournament, but he only carded one birdie. Lee was more inconsistent, as he made five birdies but countered that with seven double-bogeys and one triple-bogey.
The three-hour time zone difference combined with the one-hour daylight saving adjustment resulted in a four-hour change for the Bruins, who started so poorly Sunday that they were essentially out of contention on the first day. All of the golfers took responsibility for their mistakes, but they all are looking forward to teeing off next week in Las Vegas for the Southern Highlands Invitational.
“We’re all excited for it ““ it’s in our time zone,” Flores said jokingly. “It’s a really good golf course, and we have a couple guys who have already played it, so we have a little more experience going into it.”