As darkness crept onto the course, Bruin golfer Tiffany Joh knew she had to make a pin-high 10-foot putt to tie and have a chance at the individual championship. In a sudden-death playoff round on the par-5 18th hole, she watched Arizona State’s Azahara Munoz make birdie by sinking an improbable 25-footer that started well short of the green.
Joh’s 10-footer was a shot she had made many times before.
But the All-American junior missed it, surrendering the individual national title to Munoz.
This pattern mirrored the disappointing finish of the UCLA women’s golf team at the NCAA Championship, held at the University of New Mexico Championship Golf Course.
Throughout the dramatic four-day tournament in which players had to fight through heavy winds and thunderstorms, the battle for the championship boiled down to the all-too-familiar UCLA-USC rivalry.
After a wet and windy four rounds, the grueling competition between these two teams wrapped up Friday, with the Trojans defeating the Bruins by six strokes at 16-over par.
The second-place Bruins carded 22-over par, and third-place Duke, who made a surprising climb on the leaderboard, recorded 28-over par.
“We weren’t crying or anything, but everybody was understanding,” coach Carrie Forsyth said. “We did our best, maybe we didn’t play our actual best, but we gave a great effort, and we were proud of our effort.”
UCLA and USC were tied for first place at the end of the second round.
Third-round play was stopped because of darkness on the third day before either school had finished, and the Bruins found themselves down three strokes as redshirt junior Maiya Tanaka and freshman Maria Jose Uribe completed their remaining holes on the final day before teeing off the fourth round.
The deficit at the end of the third round was still within reach of UCLA.
However, the Bruins stumbled a bit in the first two holes of the final round as the Trojans paced themselves and played consistently. During that two-hole stretch, the Bruins recorded five bogeys and no birdies while the Trojans only had one bogie, giving USC the advantage.
“We really started playing pretty good toward the middle,” Forsyth said. “The girls started making some birdies, and we made up some of the ground that we had lost. And we were actually closing in on them. ‘SC played pretty solid the whole round, whereas we started slow then started playing pretty good. Kind of too little, too late, really.”
Joh and freshman Glory Yang finished the round at even par. Uribe and sophomore Sydnee Michaels carded 2-over par, and Tanaka struggled throughout the day, scoring a 6-over par.
Beside Joh, only one other Bruin placed in the top 10. Michaels tied for eighth place with a tournament score of 4-over par.
“I think what it says the most is we really didn’t play our best, and we came in second place,” Forsyth said. “And I think that says a lot not only about the abilities of our players but their ability to persevere through the difficult conditions.”
Joh and Munoz finished the tournament at 1-under par and were the only players under par. The pair played in the same threesome in the final round, essentially competing head to head all afternoon for the individual title.
Joh held a one-stroke lead until she bogeyed the 17th hole. Both players then made par on the 18th.
Since both players were tied at 1-under par after 72 holes of stroke play, they returned to the 18th hole, which Munoz birdied and Joh parred.
While the Bruins failed to win the national championship, they still collected several awards.
Four of the five UCLA golfers at the NCAA Championship were recognized by the National Golf Coaches Association.
Joh and Uribe earned First-Team All-American honors and Michaels was named a Second-Team All-American. Tanaka was named to the All-Central Region Team.
“We had a really good season,” Forsyth said. “It was disappointing to not win, but it could kind of go either way pretty quickly.
“We just never got any momentum going. We didn’t have a tremendous amount of momentum in the postseason,” Forsyth added.
“We’ll return everyone next year, so I think we’ve got a lot we can build on. We’re pretty highly motivated coming in to second place by a few shots.”