Tuesday, 5/6/97 Self-driven Brandon DiTullio lives up to
father’s legacy as he becomes UCLA golf team’s No. 1 player
By Chris Umpierre Daily Bruin Contributor e grew up watching his
father play golf, but Brandon DiTullio never thought he’d be
playing golf at the collegiate level when he was a kid, much less
at the same school his father played at 30 years ago. Although
Jerry DiTullio, who played varsity golf for the Bruins from 1967 to
1971, took his son to the golf course once a month, Brandon didn’t
seriously take up the sport until he entered high school. Back
then, it was a sport he just "messed around" in. "I never pushed
him (into golf)," Jerry DiTullio said. "It was always something if
he wanted to do it. I played a lot and maybe that had a influence
on it. When he was young, he didn’t care much about (golf)." The
young DiTullio was interested in baseball. But when he entered
Westlake High School, which is known nationally for its golf
program, DiTullio had to make a decision between his baseball and
golf, a sport in which he hadn’t really cared for that much when he
was growing up. "He had a couple of his friends, one being Ross
Fulgentis (DiTullio’s current UCLA teammate) and another guy that
is now playing on the USC golf team," DiTullio’s father said. "They
were really good and he could see he wasn’t nearly as good as they
were, but I think he thought he wanted to play high school sports.
"And the question was: Did he think he could really be good at
baseball or maybe did he have a better chance at golf? He just
decided one day that golf was the way to go." Luckily for the
Bruins, DiTullio quit his baseball team and began his golf devotion
at age 13. "I felt like I wanted to do something really good and I
didn’t want to spread myself too thin where I couldn’t do
something," DiTullio said. "So I was either going to pick baseball
or I was going to pick something." After DiTullio decided on golf,
he was determined to make the Westlake High golf team, which is a
tall order to fulfill. It is not uncommon for the Westlake golf
team to win all of its golf matches during the year on the way to a
state championship. But DiTullio was determined to make the squad
and he barely did so in his freshman year. With hard work and some
advice from his father, DiTullio improved tremendously in a short
amount of time as he moved up on the high school squad each year.
"What (my father) really taught me was, if I’m in a bother working
on my golfing game or if I’m in a bother studying or something, I
might as well do it really well and not fool around when I’m doing
it," DiTullio said. "(My father taught me to) make the best of my
time. So if I’m going to go practice, I’m going to go practice but
if I’m just going to go mess around, I’m going to do something
else." DiTullio practiced a lot, and was chosen most valuable
player of the Westlake golf team in both his junior and senior
seasons, just four years after he took up the sport. He won the
Maramounte League Individual Championship and was selected league
MVP in 1995. DiTullio was then intensely recruited by USC, UC
Berkeley and Oregon State before deciding on UCLA, his father’s
alma mater. After his freshman campaign at UCLA, DiTullio has
quickly become a mainstay on this year’s team. The most consistent
scorer on the squad, the sophomore has been very much responsible
for the Bruins’ resurgence in the second half of the season, which
has earned the team a spot in this year’s regionals. But DiTullio
didn’t make these accomplishments because he inherited his father’s
genes or because he was a natural at golf. He garnered these titles
through hard work and hard work alone. "He has very good work
ethics," DiTullio’s father said. "He’s a hard worker. He’s not a
natural, that’s not the case. He works very hard at improving his
game. That’s one of his strong points." DiTullio’s determination
and hard work to improve his golf game has left a very indelible
impression on the UCLA coaching staff as well. "He’s pretty
determined," coach Brad Sherfy said. "Beginning of last year, he
didn’t qualify for the fall events and then he qualified for the
first event in the second half of the season, in the winter. "He
had an option of redshirting, which some guys would do since he
missed half the year. He said he wanted to play and he got out
there and he didn’t play that well in the first event. "It looked
like he might only play one event and then he just worked his tail
off and got back in the lineup and played the last six or seven
events, all the way to regionals. He really helped us out. That
shows you something." In just seven years, DiTullio went from
barely making the high school team to holding the No. 1 spot on the
UCLA team. He is also on the verge of becoming an All-American,
something his father wasn’t able to accomplish during his golfing
career at UCLA. The young DiTullio has come a long day from those
days of just watching his father play.