Men’s golf aims to improve from last year at Prestige tournament

The UCLA men’s golf team ended the long weekend with a trip to the desert to participate in The Prestige tournament at PGA West in La Quinta.

The competition, which runs Monday through Wednesday, consists of a 12-team field including six teams from the Pac-12 conference and a special entry from Scotland’s Stirling University.

The Bruins are seeking their first tournament victory of the winter season and aim to improve upon their seventh-place team finish at the Ameri Ari Invitational in Hawaii just 10 days ago.

Each of the players will seek to emulate the success of Pedro Figueiredo who won the individual title at The Prestige tournament as a senior last year, the first UCLA golfer to do so.

Sophomores Lorens Chan and Jonathan Garrick were the best-placed individuals in the Ameri Ari Invitational, finishing tied for ninth and 24th, respectively, and will look to build on their performances as the team heads east to the Greg Norman Course. Chan currently sits ninth in the head-to-head player standings , and Garrick sits 34th.

Coach Derek Freeman has also named senior Anton Arboleda in the lineup, who finished 10th in the Bruins first competition of 2014 at the Anteater Invitational in late January.

Rounding off the starters for UCLA are juniors Jay Hwang and Matt Pinizotto. Sophomore Jake Knapp will also take part as an individual competitor.

Despite a third-place finish for UCLA at this tournament in 2013, men’s golf has not won the team title here since 2005, and it faces stiff opposition in a field that includes nine of the top-50 teams in Division I. No. 15 UCLA will likely see its strongest challenge come from defending champions No. 14 Washington and No. 24 USC, as well as co-hosts No. 9 Stanford.

Compiled by Doug Gadsby, Bruin Sports contributor.