UCLA men’s golf fails to defend last season’s title at Erin Hills
Senior Jonathon Garrick led the Bruins to a third-place finish at the Erin Hills intercollegiate by winning the individual field. (UCLA Athletics)
By Julie Song
Oct. 7, 2015 9:27 a.m.
The top scorer for UCLA men’s golf this week was the winner of the team’s tournament, but the Bruins could not defend last season’s title.
On Oct. 4, UCLA began its first round of the Erin Hills Intercollegiate, in which it won first place last season. Last season, the Bruins claimed the title at 5-under par with senior Jonathan Garrick coming in as seventh at 2-over par.
However, this season the team was stopped short at third place behind SMU and No. 4 Oklahoma State respectively, but Garrick landed his second tournament win of his college career with an individual overall score of 10-under.
“He is leading our team in a way that a coach loves to see,” said Coach Derek Freeman in a written statement.
Garrick contributed greatly to the overall team score since all individual scores of five players are combined to represent the team score. He attributed his consistent performance at Erin Hills to experience.
“It’s just from learning from all the other past tournaments,” Garrick said. “Obviously it’s a goal always to be that consistent but it doesn’t always happen, so I’m glad that it happened at this event. … (It’s) very special.”
Throughout the entire tournament, the Bruins kept their pace at third place. Although there were ups and downs individually – bogeys and double bogeys – the team kept steady, resulting in an improved score of 7-under par, compared to last season’s score of 5-under.
“We led the field in birdies which is always a good indicator of great play. However, we made some young mistakes,” Freeman said. “This level of competition and golf course demand precise execution. Unfortunately, we did not do that for the entire tournament.”
Both freshman Patrick Murphy and senior Jake Knapp had the second-highest total score among the five Bruins, with 2-over par. While Knapp continually improved his rounds and recovered from a triple bogey, ending with his best round of the tournament (76-73-69), Murphy had constant struggle with birdies, bogeys and even double bogeys throughout the final round (73-73-72).
“I feel like I hit a lot of good shots but ended up in a bad spot because maybe my course management wasn’t quite as sharp as it could have been,” Murphy said.
Murphy, who finished in the top 10 at the previous tournament, said he felt confident going into his second tournament.
“I think that if I play as well as I am now, and I improve my game plan for future events, then I think that my scores or results will just become better as I move along,” Murphy said.
The Bruins will prepare for the next upcoming event of the fall season happening through Oct. 16-18.
“We look forward to working hard over the next week before we compete,” Freeman said.
