Tough greens forces women’s golf to finish eighth South Carolina invitational
Junior Mariel Galdiano was the highest finishing Bruin at this weekend’s Darius Rucker Intercollegiate. She shot 6-over for the tournament, tying her for 22nd place. (Courtesy of UCLA Athletics)
By Justin Auh
March 10, 2019 11:46 p.m.
The Bruins could not escape the middle of the pack.
No. 4 UCLA women’s golf finished tied for eighth, shooting a 35-over 887 at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. No. 19 Florida State was the lone team to finish under par on the tournament at 2-under 850.
“We were pretty challenged by the greens – they were pretty slow but also really hard, so it was difficult to stop the ball,” said coach Carrie Forsyth. “It was pretty much the opposite of the courses we’ve been playing lately. We didn’t adjust very well, and it showed on our scores.”
The Bruins shot 26-over on par threes during the tournament, nine strokes worse than any other team.
“The greens, being as firm as they were, even though (the par threes) were not long holes, you have to lay on the ball very precisely, and we just didn’t do that,” Forsyth said. “We had some big numbers on some very short par threes because of penalty shots. Ball lands on the green, takes two bounces and goes in the water. The next person sees that and tries to hit a little closer to the front edge, but it falls in the front water.”
UCLA was in ninth place out of 17 teams after an 11-over first round. Senior Beth Wu, junior Mariel Galdiano and sophomore Patty Tavatanakit all shot 2-over Friday.
Galdiano led the Bruins on Saturday, shooting their only even-par round of the tournament. UCLA moved up to seventh place by the end of the second round after improving its score by six strokes.
In the final round, the Bruins were one of five teams with a cumulative score over 300, dropping them into a tie for eighth with No. 23 Furman.
Galdiano was UCLA’s top finisher, tying for 22nd at 6-over after shooting 4-over on Sunday. Wu finished one stroke behind to tie for 27th.
Tavatanakit finished inside the top 10 on par fours at 1-over. However, she tied for the worst individual score on par threes at 10-over to finish tied for 41st at 11-over.
Junior Clare Legaspi shot 18-over to tie for 69th. Freshman Phoebe Yue placed 82nd at 24-over.
UCLA will take a two-week break before participating in a head-to-head match against Denver at the Superstition Mountain Golf Club in Gold Canyon, Arizona.
