Young team garners experience for Pac-10 Championships

Monday, 5/5/97 Young team garners experience for Pac-10
Championships Fine coaching, improvement from fall moves group
toward top

By Chris Umpierre Daily Bruin Contributor The young,
inexperienced UCLA men’s golf team could realize its talent as it
travels to Oregon for the Pac-10 Championships, which will tee off
today and conclude on Wednesday. In the fall and winter
tournaments, the team was very shaky. Some of those horrible
performances included an 11th-place finish in the Nike-Northwest
Classic, 12th in the Fresno Lexus Classic, and 17th in the Taylor
Made Intercollegiate. But the Bruins settled down in the spring and
began to shoot the low scores that head coach Brad Sherfy thought
they had the potential to put up since the start of the season. "In
the beginning of the year, I expected this team do to very well,"
Sherfy said. "I think we had a lot of talent. I really didn’t say
it, but I was a little shocked in the fall. We didn’t play well,
and I thought we were much better than that. So we just kept
working towards the goal of getting better. I thought we had a
better team." In their last four events, the Bruins have shown they
are indeed a better team than what they showed in the fall and
winter, as they placed fifth twice, garnered a seventh place most
recently, and finished in third place in the Stanford Invitational
on April 26. The best possible answer to their solid play as of
late is that the young team, which often starts three freshmen and
two sophomores, is learning what it takes to play Division I golf.
"They are playing like they can play now," Sherfy said. "When you
come in and you step up a level, you have to get comfortable at
that level … The scores you put up as a junior golfer that may be
one of the top scores in the tournament are now mediocre at the
Division I level. So you can’t play bad and finish high, you got to
play pretty well. They have to get comfortable doing that, and so
they have all now have had nice finishes under their belt, and they
say ‘I can do that at this level.’" A large reason for why the
young team is playing so comfortably is because of the coaching
staff. Because of the tutelage of Sherfy and assistant coach Glen
Toth, the team has been able to adjust to playing at this level.
"The coaching staff is awesome," sophomore Brandon DiTullio said.
"The experience and knowledge that Brad (Sherfy) has is really
better than any other coach out there. There’s no way I can think
of having a better coach. It’s like having a touring pro be your
coach. Glen Toth … brings the team together as people." With the
recent surge, Sherfy says the Bruins have a good chance of a berth
in the West Regionals, which commence on May 15 in San Diego.
DiTullio agrees with his coach. "We are trying to peak for
Regionals," DiTullio said. "Not that we are downplaying Pac-10’s.
They are only one week apart. (But) we want to go to
Nationals."