M. golf: Men’s golf aims to swing to the top at Pac-10 Championships

When the UCLA men’s golf team travels up to Washington to
play in the Pac-10 Championships, which begin today, the Bruins
will be searching for their first victory of the season. That
statement alone exemplifies the difference between this
year’s Bruins from those of the last two years. Yet the goal
still remains the same, and No. 14 UCLA feels it has as good a
chance as anyone to walk away the conference a champion.
“There is no clear-cut favorite going into the
tournament,” UCLA coach O.D. Vincent said. “We need to
shoot more low scores. We’ve been grinding out solid 72s and
hovering around par, but we need more scores under par.”
Those scores will have to come on a course that is perhaps more fun
to say than to play. At a relatively short 6,606 yards, Walla Walla
Country Club in Walla Walla, Wash., will challenge the
conference’s best players to be precise on their approach,
not long off the tee. The tournament will be played over four
rounds, each participating school represented by six players, with
the best five scores counting in each round. Walking the golf
course with a UCLA golf bag will be senior John Poucher; sophomores
Peter Campbell, Chris Heintz and Joakim Renstrom; and freshmen
Kevin Chappell and Daniel Im. Vincent believes each of his golfers
needs to step up this weekend to be competitive. “We
can’t rely on just one player,” Vincent said.
“Everyone needs to contribute.”

ROWING: This past Saturday, the No. 14 UCLA
women’s rowing team visited Lake Phalen in St. Paul, Minn.
for a three-team race. Despite coming off a victory in their final
home meet, UCLA fell to No. 19 University of Minnesota after the
Gophers’ First Varsity Eight race crossed the finish line
with a time of 6:10.0. The Bruins clocked a time of 6:13:96 and
Southern Methodist followed in at third place at 6:48.5. The
Bruins’ Second Varsity Eight team did manage to salvage the
weekend by winning its meet with a time of 6:22.63 as opposed to
Minnesota’s time of 6:29.32.

Compiled by Bryan Chu and Seth Fast Glass, Bruin Sports
senior staff