The Bruin golfers did not win this weekend at the West Regional Championship but played well enough to advance to the NCAA Championships on May 28 in West Laffeyette, Ind.
Instead it was the USC team that claimed a victory with a 54-hole score of 2-under par at the Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash.
UCLA finished 14 strokes behind in fifth place at 12-over. Oregon, Clemson, Washington, Stanford, Saint Mary’s, Arizona State, Texas and San Diego State also finished in the top 10, clinching berths in the championship.
UCLA’s Erik Flores and Kevin Chappell finished in the top 10 individually. Both finished at 2-under. Oregon’s Joey Benedetti cruised to the individual title with three straight 69-stroke rounds.
Flores delivered a clutch performance. The Grass Valley native played much better than in his last event, the Pac-10 Championships, where he finished at 15-over and the Bruin team lost by just four strokes.
Flores’ final nine holes of the weekend were by far his best. He had no bogies and an eagle on the 514-yard 14th hole. His play was steady overall; he had just one double bogey and no bogies in his final 36 holes.
The fifth-place finish sealed a sixth straight trip to the national championships for the Bruins. The UCLA program is now one of just five schools in the country that have reached more than five straight NCAA Championships.
Chappell said before the event that the Bruins would finish in the top 10 and advance. Things did play out smoothly for UCLA, but there were some shockers.
Saint Mary’s was one of those surprises. The Gaels are ranked No. 50 in the country by Golfweek, but they finished well enough to advance to their second ever national championship.
No. 11 Florida State struggled badly, and, despite its high ranking, finished with a dismal 50-over-par team score and missed the cut for nationals. Of the five men on the Seminoles’ team, only one player ““ senior Jonas Blixt ““ shot a round under par.
Benedetti was a surprise too. The senior had never won an individual title before this weekend. He carried the No. 44 Ducks to a second-place finish and became the first golfer in the school’s history to win a West Regional title.
Georgia and Wake Forest won the East and Central regions, respectively.
Conditions were most difficult in the Central region in Columbus, Ohio, where no player finished under par and the Demon Deacons won with a team score of 27-over.
No. 1-ranked Georgia dominated the East Region in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Bulldogs finished at 41-under as a team, and their star Russell Henley won the individual title with a score of 13-under.