Men’s golf looks to debut new lineup at Lamkin San Diego Classic
Senior Eddy Lai is making his 2021 debut for UCLA men’s golf at the Lamkin Grips San Diego Classic starting Monday. (Courtesy of UCLA Athletics)
By Austin Tran
March 8, 2021 11:56 a.m.
Two Bruins will make their season debuts this week.
UCLA men’s golf will travel down south for the Lamkin San Diego Classic at San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista, California. Twenty teams are in the field, four of which are representing the Pac-12.
After finishing a combined 72 strokes off the winners in their first two tournaments, coach Derek Freeman said it was time for the Bruins to switch up the lineup. He also acknowledged that it is tough getting the team going, especially with the COVID-19 outbreak that happened at the start of the season.
“The biggest reason is just performance,” Freeman said. “We struggled in our first couple of events. With our (COVID-19) outbreak, … some of our guys weren’t ready to play in the first couple events. We needed to change (the lineup) up. They didn’t perform well. We had guys that were at home who have been doing a good job getting ready and continuing to progress. … It seemed like a good time to change it up and let these other guys have the opportunity.”
Senior Devon Bling, coming off a third-place finish, junior Bryan Wiyang Teoh, finishing eighth his last time out and sophomore Mason Greene, who made six starts in the 2019-2020 season, will remain in the starting five, while senior Eddy Lai and freshman Dylan Vizanko will compete for the first time this season.
For Vizanko, this coming week will mark his first match ever in his collegiate career. He said while he has some nerves, he expects to feel comfortable, as he grew up near the San Diego Country Club.
“I’m more excited than nervous, if anything,” Vizanko said. “It’s a course I’ve played more than 20 times.”
Freeman said some of the other Bruins have been to the course in past tournaments, so the course layout is nothing new.
“It’s a type of course that has really small greens, and it has really fast greens,” Freeman said. “It’s really important to make sure that you come in on your approach shots from the fairway, so you have to hit it well off the tee.”
Lai – who has been with the Bruins since 2017 – will be playing in his first tournament for UCLA in nearly a year. He made seven starts a season ago prior to the pandemic-caused cancellation.
However, in the year-long gap between collegiate golf competitions, the senior competed in a few tournaments over the summer, most notably the U.S. Amateur, where he finished 48th in stroke play and made it to the match play rounds.
Lai still says that it has still been a long time since his last tournament, and even with the handful of events he has played since last wearing the blue and gold, it has been a while since he last competed.
“My last tournament was three months ago, which is still a while,” Lai said. “I’m definitely pretty excited – I know I’m probably going to feel nervous. I’m just going to be like, ‘How am I going to calm myself down, chill out, everything’s going to be alright.’ We’ll see how it goes.”
Freeman said his main message to his team this week is to get better every day, knowing the Bruins will soon be where he wants them to be.
“I want to make sure that we are always improving,” Freeman said. “We’re doing things the right way, and eventually we are going to be a great golf team. It might take longer than what we all want, and it might not. We may have a great finish this week. We’re not putting any expectations out there – we’re just going to go out there, do our very best and make sure that we put ourselves in position to perform.”
UCLA will tee off starting at 7:30 a.m. Monday in San Diego.
