COURTNEY STEWART/Daily Bruin Senior Parker
McLachlin and the men’s golf team tee off the season this
weekend at the Carpet Capital Invitational Tournament.
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Let the dreaming begin. Let those dreams be crushed or become
realities. Let us see if these guys can actually play golf. Let us
see if they can shock us again.
No Bruin team last year had a more surprising closing to its
season than the men’s golf squad. For a good part of the
campaign, they were no different than most other UCLA golf teams of
recent years: They weren’t very good.
During one four-tournament stretch last season, the Bruins
failed to break into the top 10.
They responded by making excuses ““ actually, they only had
one ““ saying after each tournament that they didn’t
play up to their potential. “We’re young,” they
cried. “We can do better.”
The line, so commonly used by losing teams in every sport, was
dismissed instantly by those outside of the program.
And why shouldn’t it have been? If their scores were any
indication, these guys could hit a golf ball as straight as a
French prizefighter could walk after being hit on the chin.
But last year’s team’s early failure was due to
youth, not laziness, resulting from unjustified arrogance. So
unlike the 1998 and ’99 squads ““ teams which head coach
Brad Sherfy said frequently missed practices ““ the 2000
Bruins were able to rebound in the closing stages of the season and
qualify for the NCAAs.
“To be honest, I actually thought we would do better in
the early going,” Sherfy said. “I wasn’t saying
that (the team could do better) just to say it. I knew a lot of
these guys were better than that.”
“We had a lot of first-year guys and it was a big
lifestyle change. There were a lot of distractions to deal
with.”
Those distractions have been dealt with, and this year, the team
returns with almost everyone from last year.
The most important word in the sentence above, of course, is
“almost.”
Travis Johnson, a certain top-three scorer if he were to play,
has decided to redshirt.
On track to graduate in five years with commencement two years
from now, Johnson will forgo playing this year, his third, so that
he’ll still be NCAA-eligible in his last two years at school.
He’ll be stronger and better those final two seasons, he
reasons, and may have better luck attracting sponsors.
“He mentioned it a few times last year, but I never took
it seriously” sophomore John Merrick said. “He was
going to be captain. Now, someone else has to step up.”
Merrick intends to be that someone. He was UCLA’s top
finisher at last year’s West Regional, placing sixth, and won
a pair of tournaments over the summer. In practice so far
he’s been the top Bruin player.
Fellow sophomore Steve Conway and senior Parker McLauchlin are
projected to join Merrick near the top of the leaderboards. Both
were key contributors to last year’s team and had productive
summers. Conway played in the U.S. Amateur in the off-season while
McLauchlin, like Merrick, won two tournaments.
“They have two real good guys in Merrick and
Conway,” Golf World writer Ryan Herrington said.
“McLauchlin’s a senior. He needs to play
better.”
“I expect at least two of those guys to step up. In
college golf, you can’t have a weak link in the top
three.”
Rounding up the top five, at least at the start of the season,
will be sophomore Roy Moon and junior Sang-Eun Ji.
Sherfy, who said the team’s been shooting well in
practice, likes what he sees.
“If they post the kind of numbers they’ve been
posting, they’ll be right there.”
Let us see.