The No. 19 UCLA men’s golf team saw flashes of individual brilliance this week but didn’t end up with the sort of result they were looking for or make the kind of noise they wanted to on the national scale.
The team finished in fifth place at the USC Collegiate Invitational this week at North Ranch Country Club with a total score of 867 (+15).
Freshman Gregor Main finished Tuesday’s final round with a 68 (-3) and shot 206 (-7) over all three rounds to finish in third place individually.
Sophomore Philip Francis tied for 10th place with a final score of 213 (E) while senior Erik Flores tied for 38th after shooting even par in the final round to finish at 222 (+9). Freshman Alex Kim and senior James Lee finished with scores of 229 (+16) and 231 (+18), respectively. Lee was playing for the first time in eight months because of a wrist injury. Freshman Beau Schoolcraft shot 223 (+10) and sophomore Connor Driscoll shot 226 (+13), both of whom competed individually in the event. Neither of their scores, however, contributed to the overall team total.
Stanford captured both the individual and team titles with a team score of 839 (-13) led by Steve Zeigler’s individual score of 204 (-9).
Main and Francis were the bright spots for UCLA. Main held the lead after Monday’s two rounds and through much of Tuesday’s final round, but Zeigler made six birdies on the back nine to capture the individual victory.
“I was up there by the lead and had a chance to win,” Main said. “But the putts just didn’t really drop for me.”
Second-year coach Derek Freeman was disappointed by the overall team performance but was pleased with Main’s third-place finish.
“All you want is the opportunity to win at the very end,” Freeman said. “He had that opportunity; he just came up a couple short.”
Main was a model of consistency over the 54 holes, with only four bogeys and one double bogey as blemishes on his scorecard.
“I made an eagle the first day,” Main said, “which was big for me, confidence-wise.”
Francis played his best collegiate round ever on Monday’s second round, shooting a 5-under 66 that included six birdies and just one bogey.
“I played OK but I had a stretch of 27 really good holes,” Francis said. “But I just got off to a rough start.”
After a poor start to his first round on Monday, Francis hit his second shot on the Par five 15th hole to six feet from the pin and made the putt for eagle.
“I was upset and frustrated with the way I was playing,” Francis said. “I needed a jump start. … And I started to hit it a lot better and putt a lot better (after the eagle).”
His stellar second round carried Francis to a top-10 finish.
“He’s very close to playing some of his best golf in college,” Freeman said.
Despite a mediocre fifth-place finish for the defending national champion Bruins, the team saw many positives in their play that give them confidence moving forward, which is important for such a young team. Of their top six performers, all but Flores are underclassmen.
The teams to finish ahead of the Bruins in the standings were, in order, Stanford, BYU, California and USC.
“We’re obviously disappointed at the fifth-place finish,” Main said. “But we have a lot of talent, and we’ll get better here in the spring.”