A new day brought a new fate for the Bruins.
After jumping to a strong start on the first day, the UCLA
men’s golf team struggled in the second round of the NCAA
Championships at Sunriver, Ore.
The Bruins shot 294 (+6) for a two-day total of 574 (-2),
leaving them 11 strokes behind Washington, the clubhouse leader,
which is 563 (-13) halfway through the tournament.
Over the course of two days, the Bruins have proven to be a
dangerous yet wildly inconsistent group of golfers.
After shooting an aggregate 280 (-8) on Wednesday to finish the
first round in second place, hopes of bringing home UCLA’s
100th NCAA title were kept afloat.
After falling into a tie for ninth place Thursday, the Bruin
golfers have a much more sober approach to the last two rounds.
“All of us feel good to get the bad round out of the way
though. It’s a four-round tournament, so we’re still
right in this,” sophomore Kevin Chappell said.
UCLA got out to a decent start in the second round, shooting
only 1-over par on the front nine, but each golfer had a series of
misfires on the back nine.
Chappell shot 4-over par on the last nine holes, while sophomore
Daniel Im and freshman James Lee both shot 3-over par.
While it was tough for the golf club to reach for positives
after a frustrating round, freshman Erik Flores was happy that his
team didn’t fall even farther from the leaders.
“We’re lucky it didn’t get worse for
us,” said Flores, who leads all UCLA golfers at 1-under par
after two rounds.
“We just didn’t have anybody play really well for
us. Personally I feel like I got a lot saved up and a lot to look
forward to in the next two days,” he said.
Im, who won the Pac-10 individual title April 24-26, saw his
scorecard take a hit on Thursday. Perhaps no Bruin personifies the
team’s hot and cold streaks like Im has. The sophomore shot
77 (+5) less than 24 hours after shooting 68 (-4).
After a solid start, he stumbled to the finish line, double
bogeying the 11th hole and bogeying the 14th and 18 to end the
round.
“It was really hard for me today,” Im said. “I
was feeling uncomfortable off the tee and I struggled with the
putter. It was pretty disappointing for me.”
Amid all the struggle, junior Chris Heintz managed to bounce
back from his poor first round and was the only Bruin golfer to
shoot under par on Thursday. Heintz made three straight birdies on
the front nine and stabilized a rocky UCLA performance.
“I had a great first round so I just have to relax and get
back into a rhythm,” Im said. “I can’t feel bad
about what happened. We feel like this is the worst day we’ll
have and so it’s good that we got it out now.”
With weather forecasts predicting rain for today’s round,
UCLA will look to make adjustments and hope the slippery course
doesn’t dampen the prospects of a comeback.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t take advantage of
the early tee times and the conditions of the course,” Flores
said. “With the rain tomorrow it won’t be easy, but
we’re not getting down on ourselves. It’s still
anyone’s game.”