M. golf: Men’s golf in 9th at West Regional

The No. 14 UCLA men’s golf team got off to a promising
start on Thursday in its championship defense at the NCAA West
Regional Tournament in Palo Alto, starting at the 10th hole and
shooting 1-over par over its first nine.

The Bruins struggled toward the end of the first round and
finished in ninth place with a collective 8-over par, 10 shots
behind leading BYU.

The next nine holes were not as kind to the Bruins, as they went
7-over par during that stretch to finish ninth.

The fifth-seeded Bruins collectively shot an 8-over par 288.
They trail leader BYU by 10 strokes with two days of competition to
go, and currently sit on the bubble, as only the top 10 finishers
will advance to June’s NCAA Championship in Owings Mill,
Md.

Freshmen Daniel Im and Kevin Chappell turned in the
Bruins’ best individual performances, both shooting 71 to
finish at 1-over par.

BYU’s Oscar Alvarez, who shot a 7-under par 63, leads the
field by three strokes.

Im, who is the Bruins’ highest-ranked individual golfer,
was 1-under par through 10 holes. However, he double-bogeyed the
11th hole, which also gave several of the other Bruins trouble
““ only sophomore Joakim Renstrom managed to make par.

Chappell, who had the Bruins’ best individual score at the
recent Pac-10 Tournament, hovered around 3-over par for most of the
back nine but closed his round with two birdies in his last three
holes.

Senior captain John Poucher, the only Bruin who has previous
Regional Tournament experience, fell to 3-over par after shooting
even score through the first nine holes. He tallied four birdies
and seven bogeys in his round.

Freshman Chris Heintz’s round was a similar story. He was
also even through the first nine, yet bogeyed four of his next six
holes to finish with a 73.

Renstrom got off to a rocky start, recording a bogey and a
double bogey on consecutive holes to start his day. Renstrom
recorded UCLA’s highest score of the afternoon, a 6-over par
76, and his performance was not counted toward the team’s
total.

Led by Alvarez’s performance, BYU shot a 2-under par 278
to pace the field. Pepperdine is only one shot off the lead while
top-seeded UNLV sits in third place at 1-over par 281.