UCLA women’s golf finishes first at Nanea Pac-12 Preview in two rounds
UCLA won its second-straight tournament at the Nanea Pac-12 Preview on Tuesday. Sophomore Mariel Galdiano is a Hawaii native and tied for fifth on the individual leaderboard. (Courtesy of UCLA Athletics)
By Ryan Smith
Oct. 25, 2017 1:31 a.m.
UCLA women’s golf won its second-straight tournament Tuesday, after the third round of the Nanea Pac-12 Preview, held in Hawaii, was cancelled by stormy weather.
Rounds one and two were completed Monday.
The No. 3 Bruins finished at 20-under-par, 11 strokes ahead of second place Stanford, which finished 9-under-par.
Coach Carrie Forsyth was hoping that a third round would be played despite having the lead going into day two. Only 36 holes have to be played for an event to be considered official.
“It’s not ideal,” said Forsyth. “You don’t want to win because something like this happens where you have a weather delay and it’s just disappointing our individuals didn’t have a chance to win the individual title.”
UCLA had four golfers finish inside the top-five on the individual leaderboards behind Stanford’s Andrea Lee.
Lee shot 9-under-par and beat out UCLA’s junior Lilia Vu by two strokes for the victory.
Vu had the best round of any golfer on day one, shooting 9-under-par in her first trip around the course. She went on to finish 7-under-par after shooting 1-under in round two.
Junior Beth Wu shot 1-over-par in her first round, but bounced back to post a score of 5-under in the second. She said that playing casually allowed her to fight back into contention.
“I remembered that I was in Hawaii and that I’m just having fun out there,” Wu said. “I tried not to put too much pressure on myself.”
Wu finished fourth on the individual leaderboards and despite missing out on a shot at the title, she said that all of her teammates left as winners.
“A couple of us were in range of winning the individual title and we were bummed that we didn’t get to play,” said Wu. “But honestly, we all came out with a win because all five of us finished in the top eleven.”
Another bright spot for the Bruins was the play of sophomore and Hawaii native Mariel Galdiano.
Galdiano placed second at this tournament last season after losing by just two strokes. She shot 2-under-par at the event this week and finished in a tie for fifth place.
“I feel like I’m at home with the food and the weather,” Galdiano said. “It’s just so comforting and I feel relaxed out here and I think that’s why I’m able to play pretty well compared to other events.”
UCLA has now won back-to-back tournaments and will look to make it three in a row when they visit San José del Cabo, Mexico, to compete in the Battle at the Beach starting Nov. 3.
