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UCLA women’s golf heads to Hawaii for Nanea Pac-12 Preview

Junior Annabel Wilson follows through on a swing. UCLA women’s golf is set to compete in the Nanea Pac-12 Preview in Hawaii, where Wilson helped lead the Bruins to a second-place finish in 2019. (Courtesy of UCLA Athletics)

By Austin Tran

Nov. 1, 2021 12:40 a.m.

The Bruins will have a chance to replicate the same results they had two years ago, but this time with a different lineup.

UCLA women’s golf is headed to Hawaii for the Nanea Pac-12 Preview at Nanea Golf Club. This is the Bruins’ first time back in Hawaii since 2019, when they finished in second place at the same tournament with a score of 17 under par.

Only two players from the 2019 lineup will return to this year’s competition – juniors Emma Spitz and Annabel Wilson. The team will also have freshmen Zoe Campos and Caroline Canales in the lineup, with junior Emilie Paltrinieri rounding out the starting five.

While Spitz finished tied for seventh place in 2019, she said she thinks her game is stronger than it was in her freshman season.

“I’ve improved my short game and also my long game, (so) I think everything has been more solid,” Spitz said. “I’ve definitely evolved as a player since two years ago, and I’m looking forward to play a tournament on a course I have played already.”

Spitz said she is not changing her mindset or her expectations going into the week, adding that she is treating this as just another tournament with an emphasis on making every shot count.

The junior is also coming off a 5-under-par stretch in the last two rounds she has played. At the Stanford Intercollegiate from Oct. 15 through Oct. 17, Spitz fired rounds of 1 under par and 4 under par in the second and third rounds, respectively, to earn a 15th-place finish in UCLA’s most recent tournament.

While Spitz has been a staple in the Bruins’ lineup, Paltrinieri is making her first team start this season. She previously competed as an individual at The Molly Collegiate Invitational from Sept. 27 to Sept. 28.

During the break between tournaments, the junior said she put a heavy emphasis on her swing.

“I’ve been working on more technical things. That’s why my scores were not that good in the beginning,” Paltrinieri said. “I just worked a lot with the coaches and my swing improved and … I was able to qualify (into the lineup).”

Coach Carrie Forsyth said this year’s team has a different set of strengths compared to the 2019 team that finished second at the Nanea Pac-12 Preview.

“The reason we played so well here last time is we had two of our players finish tied for second, and both of those players are not here anymore,” Forsyth said. “The big thing about playing well here is just really understanding the golf course, knowing where to hit it and having good putting.”

Spitz said the course at Nanea Golf Club is different from the courses back home, adding that wind could be a significant factor in the afternoon and that everything on the greens break toward the water.

Not all the Bruins are familiar with the course, however. For Paltrinieri, this is her first time ever playing golf in Hawaii.

“The greens are quite tough because they’re slopey, and then the tricky part about playing in an island is that the wind can pick up quite a bit,” Paltrinieri said. “The key thing will be to manage playing with the wind and playing with lower shots into the wind. That will make a difference.”

The Nanea Pac-12 Preview will be the final tournament of UCLA’s fall season, as the Bruins will take a nearly three-month break before resuming play at the end of January.

Forsyth said while the team has had a successful fall season thus far, it is still capable of playing better golf.

“We’ve had a pretty successful fall, (but) we haven’t had a win,” Forsyth said. “We have a really strong lineup here, a lineup very capable of playing well here and really getting a win or coming very close to it. We just have to come out and really play our best and not get into Hawaii mode.”

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Austin Tran | Sports reporter
Tran is currently a Sports reporter on the men's and women's golf beats.
Tran is currently a Sports reporter on the men's and women's golf beats.
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