Freshman Erynne Lee earned her keep this Tuesday as the third member of the UCLA women’s golf team to win a tournament this season. Lee, who is ranked No. 3 nationally, led the scoreboard over the two-day Pacific Coast Intercollegiate, which took place in Half Moon Bay.
“She’s been vital to our team this season” said coach Carrie Forsyth.
“It’s been really fun to watch her. She’s a great player. She has a tremendous amount of ability, and she’s an integral part of the success we’ve achieved so far this season, and anything we might achieve in the postseason.”
Lee is the highest-ranked freshman in the nation, as well as the highest-ranked member of the team, and her considerable skills were displayed over the course of the tournament.
Day one of competition ended with Lee’s five-shot lead, as the freshman hit nine birdies and finished eight under par on the 36-hole course.
Tuesday’s 18-hole final round sealed what was already an impressive performance by Lee, who finished one under par for the day, and nine under par for the course. Her score tied for fourth place in UCLA’s record list of the best 54-hole scores.
“It still doesn’t feel like I won the tournament,” Lee said. “I think at that moment, after I finished 18 holes, I was glad to be done. I was happy with my performance. The past couple tournaments, I’ve had three third-place finishes. I couldn’t take it to the next level, so the fact that I could do it this weekend was really great.”
All they do is win (tournaments)
The No. 1 UCLA women’s golf team leads the nation with a total of six first-place tournament finishes.
Over the course of this season, the Bruins have not finished worse than second place at any tournament.
As last year’s national champions, the women’s golf team has quite a bit of hype to live up to, especially after the loss of Stephanie Kono to the LPGA, but its consistent domination of regular-season tournaments would seem to predict its post-season fortunes.
“We all knew that we had to work harder and play our best when we’re out there because we lost a senior,” Lee said. “We have such a great, competitive team, that we make up for her loss.”
The Pacific Coast Intercollegiate included 15 teams, nine of which are future Pac-12 opponents in next weekend’s championship tournament.
“Our coach wanted us to compete in this tournament to keep us competitively sharp,” said junior Tiffany Lua.
Without the break of the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate, the team would have gone about three weeks without competing, and would surely have missed the opportunity to refine their technique.
“I’ve seen improvements in competition and I’m going to continue to build on that for the upcoming tournaments,” Lua said.
The first-place title was probably an added goodie.
Player of the Week
Sophomore Ani Gulugian was named the UCLA/Muscle Milk Student-Athlete of the Week for March 26-April 1. Gulugian tied for first place at the PING/ASU Invitational, earning her first individual collegiate win.
“For her, it means a lot,” Forsyth said.
“It’s pretty cool to be recognized, especially in a place like UCLA. It’s a fairly significant achievement.”
At the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate, Gulugian tied for seventh after the first round of competition and ultimately tied for 22nd overall in the tournament. The sophomore also has four top-10 finishes and seven top-20 finishes this season.