Road to Knoxville begins today at Newport Beach
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 28, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Monday, April 29, 1996
M. golf hopes its Pac-10 performance clears way to NCAA
tournamentBy Arthur Choung
Daily Bruin Contributor
At this time a year ago, the UCLA men’s golf team struggled to
make the NCAA Regionals and failed to reach nationals for the
second consecutive year. First-year head coach Brad Sherfy’s goal
was to reverse that trend.
"I felt like if we got to the NCAA Championships, we’d have a
very good year," Sherfy said.
In order to qualify for the championships, UCLA must play well
in not only the regionals,but in the Pacific 10 Championships
beginning today at the Big Canyon Country Club in Newport
Beach.
With competition that includes four top-20 teams and reigning
U.S. Amateur champion Tiger Woods, UCLA looks to have a tough time
coming out on top.
The Bruins are led by seniors Eric Lohman and Mike Miller, the
most consistent golfers on the team. However, the tournament will
probably be won or lost by the other players, those have been
consistently inconsistent all year long.
"These guys are still young, and they’re still learning," he
said.
But with two top-three finishes in the last three tournaments,
the Bruins seem to be peaking at just the right time.
"If they continue to play like that or improve a little bit, I
don’t think we’ve seen the best golf out of these guys yet," said
Sherfy. "They’re starting to get hungry, and their starting to see
that they can do it."
In its last tournament, UCLA finished third, beating out both
11th-ranked USC and 18th-ranked Stanford, who finished fourth and
fifth respectively.
Arizona State, the defending Pac-10 champion, is ranked third in
the nation, while Arizona is ranked eighth.
The tournament, hosted by USC, consists of two rounds today, one
tomorrow and the final Wednesday.
