Women’s golf falls short in NCAA regional after winning Pac-12 title
Sophomore Lilia Vu and UCLA women’s golf couldn’t carry momentum from their Pac-12 win into the NCAA regional. The Bruins placed eighth in the Lubbock, Texas, regional, narrowly missing the sixth-place cutoff. (UCLA Athletics)
By TuAnh Dam
May 10, 2017 9:51 p.m.
UCLA women’s golf’s run has come to an end.
A week after claiming the Pac-12 title, the No. 1 Bruins’ season is over.
After making it out of the NCAA regional for 16 consecutive years, the team finished eighth in the Lubbock, Texas, regional, just missing the sixth-place cutoff for the NCAA Tournament.
The Bruins had entered the last day of competition tied for sixth after weathering a windy first day, but could not keep themselves in contention.
“We did not do what we needed to do,” said coach Carrie Forsyth. “We did not play great on an easy golf course. We underperformed, a lot of poor wedges, didn’t make our putts. We were sloppy in areas we needed to be clean in.”
Sophomore Lilia Vu led the way for the Bruins, finishing the course tied 13th. The Pac-12 individual winner had a 1-over 217 after recording a 3-over 75 on Wednesday afternoon.
Just behind Vu was freshman Mariel Galdiano, who was tied for 17th after finishing the three-day competition 2-over 218. Galdiano posted a 2-under 70 in the final round with six birdies on the first, second, fifth, ninth, 16th and 17th holes.
Junior Erin Choi also shot 2-under on Wednesday with her four birdies on holes two, three, seven and 16 to go along with two bogeys.
Bethany Wu ended her sophomore campaign tied for 45th overall after going 2-over 74. Wu had two birdies on the third and 11th holes to go with four bogeys.
Clare Legaspi rounded out the Bruins’ competition placing 78th after a 6-over 78. The freshman also had a pair of birdies on the ninth and 17th holes in addition to two bogeys and three doubles.
As a team, UCLA had its best round Wednesday shooting 1-over 289 after shooting 8-over 296 in the first two rounds. The Bruins finished the competition with a three-round total of 17-over 881, just six strokes out of sixth place.
Two Pac-12 teams advanced out of Lubbock with Arizona State winning the regional and Oregon finishing in third. Stanford, USC and California all advanced out of the Albuquerque, New Mexico, region to give the conference five teams going to the NCAA Tournament in Illinois.
All five of UCLA’s golfers are underclassmen and are expected to be back with Vu and Wu leading the way.
“This was a good learning experience, and we have a lot to learn,” Forsyth said. “After the Pac-12 championship and the high they were on after that, (they didn’t understand) how you have to reset. A week later it doesn’t matter if you won the conference championship. You have to perform at regionals and we didn’t do that.”
