By Suzanne Cabral
Daily Bruin Contributor
The Arizona Wildcats host the Bruins’ spring season opener
with the PING/Arizona Collegiate tournament today and Tuesday at
the Raven in Sabino Springs, Ariz.
During the fall season, the Bruins earned four top-10 finishes
and with the start of the spring season, aim to improve their
ranking in order to make it to the NCAA Championships in June. The
Bruins were excluded from the championship tournament for the past
two years and are eager to regain a spot.
“We’ve got a talented team,” head coach Brad
Sherfy said prior to the season. “We need to improve every
week and gel at the right time to return to the NCAA
Championships.”
Junior Parker McLachlin and sophomore Travis Johnson will be key
in helping the team fight to regain championship eligibility.
McLachlin is considered one of the top players in the country and
is the Bruins’ top All-America candidate. Averaging 75.7
strokes in 13 rounds, 83 percent of his scores contributed to the
team’s scoring total. Johnson, the No. 2 player, has averaged
73.7 strokes in 15 rounds and is expected to compete with McLachlin
for the top spot all season.
A surprising turn of events stirred things up for the Bruins
while they competed amongst each other for the top five player
spots to go to the tournament. Freshman Sang-Eun Ji, who
didn’t play in the fall, earned the No. 3 position.
This tournament could be a factor which determines the
team’s morale for the remainder of the season. A lot of
aspirations were made for the spring to be the season where the
team shapes up and gets the ball rolling.
“I expect good things out of our team in the
spring,” McLachlin said after the team’s final fall
tournament. “I think it just takes one really good tournament
to get some momentum going.”
Gaining a good spot at the tournament may not come as easily as
the Bruins hope. Competition could be stiff, especially against the
host Wildcats, who are ranked 10th in both the MasterCard/CGF and
GolfWorld polls. The Wildcats took second place at the PING/Arizona
Collegiates tournament last year and have a new addition, 2000
freshman of the year Ricky Barnes, who is ranked 20th in the
MasterCard/CGF player poll.
The Bruins, however, are not going to focus on their
competitors, instead they turn to the goal of coming out on top in
the spring. The importance of the spring season really motivated
the team to work up to its potential during preseason practice.
“The spring season ““ that’s really the only
season that counts,” McLachlin said.