W. golf: Title hopes washed away

SUNRIVER, Ore. “”mdash; Heading into the back nine of
Friday’s final round at the Meadows Course at Sunriver Resort
trailing Duke by five shots, the UCLA women’s golf team put
its NCAA Championship fate in the most secure place it could
““ the steady hands of Charlotte Mayorkas.

So when the senior stuffed her approach shot to the par-5 10th
hole to within three feet for birdie to open her back nine, it
seemed that a second consecutive national title was still well
within reach for the Bruins.

But after Mayorkas ran her short birdie putt by the hole, which
she followed with a double bogey on the par-4 11th, it became
readily apparent that there would not be a Bruin celebration this
year, not on this course, not on this day.

“When I was on the 13th hole, I thought Charlotte was
3-over,” UCLA coach Carrie Forsyth said. “And when she
came through at 6-over, I thought, “˜Hmm, (coming back) is
going to be tough.'”

It proved too difficult, as top-ranked Duke survived a late run
by the Bruins to capture its third title in the last seven years,
bringing an end to UCLA’s streak of five consecutive
postseason tournament victories.

Despite shooting 13-over par in the final round, the Blue Devils
finished the championship with a collective team total of 34-over
par, five shots ahead of the second-place Bruins.

“It just sucks,” sophomore Hannah Jun said.
“It’s the biggest tournament of the year, the one
tournament you want to win, and we came close. We didn’t even
play well, and we came close.”

And though Mayorkas has repeatedly bailed the Bruins out for
over the past two years with late-round heroics, Friday’s
final round marked one of the few times she was unable to come
through when her team needed her the most.

The senior, who on multiple occasions let go of her driver in
her follow-through in frustration, struggled through one of her
worst rounds of the year at the worst possible time, posting a
7-over par 78 in the final round.

“What’s going through my mind (is) what a hack of a
round I had,” said Mayorkas, who failed to record a single
birdie in Friday’s final round. “Didn’t play very
well, didn’t help my team out. I’m actually very
disappointed.”

“Yeah, I was surprised (about Mayorkas’
round),” Forsyth said. “Just because of who she is and
the player she is. But on any given day, you can have a bad
round.”

Yet coming into the day nine strokes behind the Blue Devils, the
Bruins weren’t afforded the luxury of counting a bad round to
their overall score.

While freshman Amie Cochran (3-under par 68), junior Susie
Mathews (1-over par 72) and sophomore Hannah Jun (4-over par 76)
did their part in maintaining UCLA’s pulse, it wasn’t
enough to keep the Bruins’ title aspirations from washing
away in the persistent Oregon downpour.

Even more frustrating for UCLA, which watched Duke pose with the
championship trophy after the completion of the round, was knowing
that for most of the 72-hole event, the team was always one putt,
one drive and one round away from reclaiming the lead.

“One more good score, one more decent number, and
we’re right there,” Forsyth said. “But the thing
that really killed us is that we counted three good scores every
day, but not four. Albeit they came from all different people and
every day someone else contributed, in the end, we need four good
scores every round.”

As the Bruins stood beside the 18th green as they did a year
ago, this time as the second-place finishers, the players took
turns consoling one another in emotional embraces.

For a team who had been so accustomed to seeing its name atop
the leaderboard, the taste of second place was especially
bitter.

“We definitely know now what it feels like to lose, and we
don’t want to feel that way again,” Jun said.

“We thought we’d give it a run today, and we came
close,” Mathews said. “It’ll just make us
hungrier next year.”