Season looking bright for Bruin teams

Wednesday, October 15, 1997

Season looking bright for Bruin teams

GOLF Men finish in top half of tourney; women give strong
performance

By Scott Street

Daily Bruin Contributor

Nike headquarters were within an hour’s drive, and if you
listened closely on the links of the Trysting Tree Golf Club, you
might have heard the echoing of golf’s newest slogan: "I am Tiger
Woods."

Yet when the crowd was silenced and the teams dispersed, it was
the BYU Cougars, with a consistent, Woods-esque performance, who
stole the show at the Nike Northwest Classic in Corvallis, Ore.,
last week.

The UCLA men’s golf team slid into the top half of the finishers
behind the play of B.J. Schlagenhauf, who ended the three-day
tournament at one-under par, five shots behind the Cougars’ Andy
Miller.

Schlagenhauf had begun the tournament magnificently, firing an
opening round 69, just one shot off the pace set by Stanford’s
Dusty Brett. But consecutive rounds of one-over par, while
certainly solid at the par-72 course, were not enough to catch
Miller, who exploded after a first-round 75 to shoot 68 and 67 en
route to a stellar six-under par performance.

The Cougars responded in full, providing a collective four-under
par effort in the final round to secure an 11-stroke victory over
Colorado State. In addition to the tournament’s individual
champion, BYU placed its four remaining players within the top 40
finishers, a remarkable achievement in a field of over 100
competitors. Not one Cougar shot worse than seven-over par.

Brandon DiTullio finished with a seven-over par for the Bruins;
tied for 37th place individually; and helped the team to a
ninth-place finish with 885 total strokes, 24 behind the Cougars.
Also for UCLA, Eddy Lee fired an eight-over par and Jason
Semelsberger added an 11-over par. Ross Fulgentis finished off the
Bruins’ fivesome at 18-over par.

The tournament was marked by a noticeable equality among each
school’s leading players; of the nine top individual finishers,
nine separate schools were represented.

. . .

The ninth-ranked UCLA women’s golf team produced its strongest
performance of the young season in late September at the Dick
McGuire Invitational, hosted by the University of New Mexico.
Behind the stirring performance of senior Amandine Vincent, who won
her first tournament in three years, the Bruins tied for third
place with 907 total strokes.

Vincent fired a four-under par, finishing strongly with a final
round score of 70, three-under on the par 73 course. With the
performance, Vincent jumped to seventh nationally in the individual
golf rankings. The Bruins’ leading scorer with a stroke average of
73.5, Vincent has had a history of success at the New Mexico
course: Two years ago as a sophomore transfer, she tied for first
at five-under par.

Sophomore Alexandra Gasser posted her best collegiate finish at
the McGuire Invitational, tying for 20th place with 227 total
strokes, including a final round even-par 73. Senior Betty Chen
aided the third-place effort with a season-best low round of
77.

Also contributing was Laura Moffat from West Kilbride, Scotland,
who shot a low round of 76 at the McGuire Invitational. The Bruins’
other freshman, Julie Oh, did not compete in New Mexico, but is
averaging 79.6 strokes per round in her young collegiate
career.

UCLA has succeeded without Sophie Sandolo, its top returning
player from last year. She ranked 10th nationally last season while
leading the Bruins with a 75.1 stroke average. Ranked sixth
nationally at the start of this season, she arrived on campus Sept.
24 but was not available to compete at the New Mexico event. Her
first tournament of the season will be the Rolex Match Play
Championships at the Doral Country Club in Miami Beach, Fla., Nov.
1-3.

The rest of the women’s team will hope to expand upon their
McGuire performance in South Florida, an event that they will be
hosting. ASUCLA Photography

Brandon Di Tullio