The No. 3 UCLA women’s golf team watched “All About Steve” on Saturday when a thunderstorm and heavy rain forced the cancellation of the second round of the Mason Rudolph Invitational in Franklin, Tenn.
“We just kind of relaxed,” coach Carrie Forsyth said. “It was funny, good for a few laughs.”
But the Bruins didn’t relax the next day, as UCLA clawed its way up the leaderboard to finish second with a total of 562 (-14), two strokes behind No. 2 USC. No. 4 Auburn came in third, and first-ranked Arizona State and Duke tied for fourth.
At the Vanderbilt Legends Club, the Bruins came in sixth place during round one of the tournament, totaling 284 on Friday.
Originally scheduled for three rounds, the tournament paused on Saturday because of rain and thunderstorms. With the delay, tournament organizers eventually canceled the second round, forcing UCLA to make up its six-stroke deficit to tournament leaders Auburn and USC in just one round.
Forsyth said that the Bruins preferred to play three rounds rather than two.
“You feel like you have more opportunities,” she said. “The more rounds, the more time you have to make up the round, to make up the differences, the better. But given what we started with and the fact that we had rain problems, we’re happy. We knew what we needed to do today. We had to play really good to have a chance, considering the position we were in.”
The Bruins did just that, registering 278 (10), the lowest team score of Sunday’s round.
“They just stepped up,” Forsyth said. “It was a good team effort, everybody had scores that count. That’s a good finish.”
Senior Sydnee Michaels spearheaded UCLA’s climb in standings, firing 65 (-7), the lowest individual score in the event in the second round.
Michaels, the defending champion of the Mason Rudolph Invitational, finished tied for second this weekend, totaling 135 (-9).
“She hit the ball super long and made a lot of putts,” Forsyth said. “And she just did everything right and had a great score, so it’s fun to watch her play well and fun to see her have a really good putting round, and that was the difference.”
Sophomore Brianna Do, who didn’t play any tournaments last season with the travel lineup, tied for 20th with 142 (-2) after shooting two solid 71 (-1) rounds. Sophomore Stephanie Kono also tied for 20th after registering a 73 (+1) in the second round. Junior Glory Yang tied for 30th with an even-par 144, recording 70 (-2) on the day. In her first collegiate tournament, freshman Tiffany Lua tied for 49th with 146 (+2) after shooting an even-par 72 in round two.
“I know (Lua) was a little disappointed with her first round,” Forsyth said. “She struggled a little bit ball-striking-wise first round, but she got it together today ““ even par ““ which is a good, solid score, and just to get the first tournament under your belt, and learn something and move forward.”
UCLA had to play through a wet and soggy Legends Club golf course in both rounds of the tournament. However, the tournament officials applied the “lift, clean and place” rule, which means that players are allowed to mark their ball if it is on the fairway, clean it, and place it to avoid mud puddles and standing water.
Up next for UCLA is the Stanford Pepsi Invitational at the Stanford Golf Course Oct. 16-18.