Women's Team of the Year: Golf builds on trust, friendship for solid season and NCAA Championship
To read about the men’s team of the year, please visit:
Men's Team of the Year: Soccer eager to prove skills again in season-opening rematch against Louisville
This article is part of the Daily Bruin’s Graduation Issue 2011 coverage. To view the entire package of articles, columns and multimedia, please visit:
By Emma Coghlan
June 5, 2011 10:26 p.m.
Trust ““ it’s the vital component of any relationship.
It’s what made the women’s golf team special.
“Knowing how hard we’ve worked allowed us to really trust each other,” junior Stephanie Kono said. “I believed in my teammates, and they believed in me.”
The team is characterized not only by their NCAA title but also by the friendship that intertwines the women on the team.
Their goal from the start was the national title. After a disappointing 2009-2010 season in which the team finished sixth at nationals, the Bruins were determined to go all the way.
They had six tournament victories this season and only finished outside of the top three once.
Individually, the team totaled 20 top-10 finishes. The Bruins managed to take this success all the way to Texas and the NCAA Championships.
It was not only their skills that put the Bruins on top of the leaderboard in Texas.
From the beginning of the year, this team was different: They were friends first and teammates second.
Oftentimes, teams come together for practice then disperse to their respective dorms, seeing their fellow athletes as just teammates ““ nothing more. This was not so for women’s golf.
“We have fun together, we enjoy each other’s company, we love eating together,” sophomore Tiffany Lua said. “And we also use each other to push ourselves.”
The team dynamic is due to the work of coach Carrie Forsyth and assistant coach Alicia Um-Holmes.
Every year, they foster a trusting environment where the team members can communicate easily and be themselves, and work from there to improve their game.
When a player needed a push, their teammates were there to help them along.
After the championship, freshman Ani Gulugian confirmed that she had her best round on the final day of competition and attributed part of her success to a note that Kono gave her before the fourth round, a note that told her that she believed in Gulugian and assured her to believe in herself.
According to Forsyth, this team seemed to get along better than many teams she has worked with in her time at UCLA.
They were close in and out of practice, spending much of their time together. It was their closeness that led them to success and, ultimately, NCAA title No. 107.
Trust is especially important for a golf team because of the individuality of the sport.
Each player has to play their best golf on a particular day and trust their teammates to do the same.
“When you’re out there, it’s hard enough to trust yourself. It’s even harder to have to trust other golfers to do well because you’re just not used to it,” said Kono.
Looking back on the team, the golfers recognize what a special team it was.
“We can look at each other and say that we really trust each other,” Lua said.
“We have each other’s backs, we’re there for each other. … It’s not common to say that for any team. The trust we have in each other is really special.”
