By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Heading into the toughest golf tournament of the fall quarter
this weekend, the Carpet Capital at Georgia Tech, members of the
UCLA men’s team aren’t exactly intimidated by the
higher ranks.
Sure, No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Clemson and No. 3 Arizona State will
be there. In fact, of the 15 teams playing, UCLA is just one of
four teams that is unranked.
“This is probably the strongest field that we play against
until Regionals or NCAAs,” said sophomore Travis Johnson.
But the men aren’t thinking about the competition.
They’re thinking about themselves.
“It’s really just you against the golf
course,” said sophomore J.T. Kohut.
For a Bruin team that has admitted to under-performing
throughout its first three tournaments, the Carpet Capital is a
test to see if they’re as good as they think they are ““
and a chance to finally prove that to the collegiate golfing
world.
“If we do play well this weekend, that’s going to
make everyone in the nation know,” Kohut said.
But that’s a pretty big “if.”
So far the men have choked in two tournaments coming down the
stretch. At both the Inverness Intercollegiate and the Husky
Invitational the Bruins entered the final round placed in the top
three, but then failed to keep it up on the final holes and
finished sixth and fourth, respectively, at the two
tournaments.
And then there’s the youth factor.
Already, three true freshmen have had a chance to play for UCLA.
This time it’s one junior (Parker McLachlin), two sophomores
(Kohut and Johnson) and two freshmen (Steve Conway and John
Merrick) who represent UCLA as the scoring five.
“We’re real young,” McLachlin said.
“Travis and I are the only ones to see this golf course.
It’s all a little bit of a question.”
But then again, with three tournaments under their belts
already, Johnson sees a lot of potential in his team.
“We’ve definitely got a lot of firepower. The
chemistry on the team this year is a lot stronger than in the
past,” he said. “It seems like the guys this year are
more motivated. Our work ethic’s better. We’re starting
to get acquainted better.”
The Bruins were unranked in the preseason and are unranked now.
Of course, third, fourth and sixth place finishes in mediocre
tournaments wouldn’t help them earn a higher ranking,
anyway.
“That has nothing to say about how much talent we have on
the team,” Johnson said. “If we played as we should we
could be in the top 15. We’ll earn our ranking
back.”
And they intend to start on this quest at the Carpet
Capital.
“If we gel as a team, good things can happen,”
McLachlin said. “This’ll be good for the rest of the
year.”