Last year, the stage was set. The UCLA women’s golf team,
coming off its best season in the program’s history, hosted
the Pac-10 Championships, and boasted the best player, the best
freshman and the best coach in the conference. The tournament,
which the Bruins won by a comfortable 18 shots, served as a
coronation of UCLA’s great season instead of its designed
purpose, a competitive battle between the conference’s best
teams. Now as the No. 3 Bruins prepare to defend their Pac-10 title
starting today in Pleasanton, Calif. on Ruby Hills Golf Club, no
such red carpet will be rolled out for them this time. UCLA may
still boast the Pac-10’s best player in Charlotte Mayorkas.
The team may still also have the conference’s best freshman,
Amie Cochran, and the conference’s best coach, Carrie
Forsyth. But what the Bruins will have to face starting today,
which they didn’t have to contend with last year, is stiffer
competition and an unfamiliar course. The Pac-10 currently features
four of the top-15 teams in the country, including Arizona State
(No. 4), Washington (No. 6) and USC (No. 15), all of which should
provide plenty of competition for the Bruins. Furthermore, UCLA
will not have the luxury of a home-course advantage, which this
year will belong to Cal. Last season, Mayorkas played nearby
Saticoy Country Club in Somis several times before the Pac-10
Championships, crediting that preparation as one of the keys to
winning the individual championship. The Bruins, who are sending
Mayorkas, junior Susie Mathews, sophomore Hannah Jun and freshmen
Amie Cochran and Melissa Martin to Pleasanton, don’t expect
it to be as easy as it was last year. Still, Forsyth feels
that’s not a reason to lower expectations for the
highest-ranked team in the conference. “Our team has been
working hard to get to this point, where every shot can be the
difference between becoming conference and national champions, or
runner-ups,” said Forsyth, whose team has won three spring
tournaments and finished no lower than second. “The Pac-10
Championships are the best preparation any team can have before
heading to the NCAA Championships.” A year ago, the
Bruins’ victory at the Pac-10 Championships sparked the
team’s postseason run, as UCLA went on to win the NCAA West
Regionals and the NCAA Championships. The Bruins are hoping that
over the next three days, they can once again use the conference
tournament as a catalyst in their quest to defend their NCAA
title.
CHIP SHOTS: Beginning this morning, UCLA will play the first of
three rounds at a Ruby Hills course that plays to a par of 72 at
over 6,300 yards. The length of the course should be no problem for
the Bruins, who currently are the No. 1 team in the nation in par-4
and par-5 scoring … Each team is comprised of five players, with
the low four scores for counted for each round to determine a team
champion.