Men’s golf bests last season’s NCAA champion Stanford in match-play tournament
Junior Devon Bling teamed up with sophomore Bryan Wiyang Teoh for two of UCLA men’s golf’s three rounds at the Cypress Point Classic. The pair defeated its Illinois counterpart in the quarterfinals, but lost to Georgia Tech in the next round. (Courtesy of UCLA Athletics)
By Jacqueline Dzwonczyk
Oct. 29, 2019 11:50 p.m.
The Bruins competed in their first match-play tournament of the year and defeated the reigning match-play champion.
UCLA men’s golf defeated Stanford in the third-place match of the Cypress Point Classic in Pebble Beach, California, on Tuesday afternoon. The Cardinal were last season’s national champions – which is determined by match-play – but UCLA junior Devon Bling said the Bruins were confident coming in.
“All of the guys on our team like playing match-play, so I don’t think (finishing third) was much of a surprise,” Bling said.
A match-play tournament pits two teams directly against each other in a bracket-style advancement system, and each stage of competition featured a different format.
Monday morning’s quarterfinals were fourball style, which consists of each player hitting every shot, but only one from each team counts.
UCLA defeated Illinois 2.5-0.5, with the pair of Bling and sophomore Bryan Wiyang Teoh, as well as senior Hidetoshi Yoshihara and junior Eddy Lai, winning their respective matches. Sophomore Sean Maruyama and freshman Chaz Aurilia tied their opponents, splitting the point with Illinois.
“We all played well, we all fed off each other,” Bling said. “We practiced beforehand with the (Illinois pair), so I think we did a good job of working with each other, being smart on the golf course and making the right decisions based on what our opponents were doing.”
UCLA moved on to the semifinals that afternoon, facing Georgia Tech in foursomes. UCLA fell 2-0, with the Bling-Teoh and Yoshihara-Lai pairs both picking up losses before the final group had even finished playing.
Georgia Tech placed first in its first two tournaments of the fall season before finishing 10th on its home course at the Golf Club of Georgia Intercollegiate Invitational last week. After beating the Bruins on Monday, the Yellow Jackets went on to clinch the Cypress Point Classic with a championship win over Duke.
“That was really rough, … that was tough,” Lai said. “I think (Georgia Tech is) just a good team. … I don’t think we started that great, and then everyone was just down.”
With the loss, UCLA then faced Stanford in a third-place singles match Tuesday, which the Bruins won 4-2 with whole points coming from Bling, Lai and Maruyama and half points – awarded for ties – coming courtesy of Yoshihara and Aurilla.
“It means a lot,” said coach Derek Freeman. “(The Cardinal) understand match play very well, they’re a very senior team and they’ve got some older guys who played really well. And our guys just battled, they fought all day long.”
The Bruins will have a quick turnaround as they will start their final fall tournament Friday.
