The Bruins will travel north to start their season.
No. 5 UCLA women’s golf is headed to San Francisco to compete in the USF Intercollegiate in its first event of the year. The tournament will be held at The Olympic Club, with 36 holes Monday followed by 18 holes Tuesday, and feature a field of 10 teams, four of which are from the Pac-12.
While this will be the blue and gold’s first tournament since being eliminated in the quarterfinals of the NCAA championships, many of the team’s players competed in summer tournaments.
Sophomore Caroline Canales was a match-play semifinalist in the 56th California Women’s Amateur in San Luis Obispo, California in July. Canales said the individual competitions were good practice heading into the new season.
“All of my events this summer were on tough courses,” Canales said. “It was good preparation to tackle the season because we do play pretty difficult courses.”
Over the summer, redshirt sophomore Alessia Nobilio earned a spot on the preseason watch list for the ANNIKA Award – which honors the top collegiate women’s golfer every year.
In late August, Nobilio won the English Women’s Open Amateur at Beau Desert Golf Club and also competed in other tournaments over the offseason. Nobilio said she was feeling confident about her game after the award nomination and her summer tournament play.
“I didn’t know I was going to be on the preseason watchlist,” Nobilio said. “I am really happy to be there, and I hope to play well.”
The Bruins’ roster shrunk from 10 players a season ago to eight this year, a reduction highlighted by the loss of UCLA’s top golfer from 2021, Emma Spitz. Coach Carrie Forsyth said the smaller roster size without Spitz will afford more players the opportunity to fill in the No. 1 spot on the team.
“Emma Spitz was and is a superstar, but what I have seen historically is when a superstar leaves, it opens up space at the top,” Forsyth said. “People tend to rise to fill that space. I am hoping that what we don’t have in Emma’s one score will be regained by everyone playing just a little bit better.”
Despite the Los Angeles heat wave over the past week, temperatures are projected to be in the high 60s and low 70s in San Francisco during the tournament.
The team has been practicing in Valencia, California, where the heat is even drier than in Westwood, Canales said. She also said practicing in the extreme heat will prove to be advantageous during the tournament.
“I think that practicing in those types of conditions, having to persevere and hydrate properly, makes us tougher,” Canales said. “It’s going to make playing in nicer weather at The Olympic Club more enjoyable.”
After many players spent their summer competing individually, the Bruins have been practicing as a team for the past couple of weeks. Although this is the first tournament of the 2022 season, Forsyth said her goal for the team is to win the tournament.
“I really just expect the girls to just go out there and compete to the best of their abilities,” Forsyth said. “We obviously want to win, but if we go out there and give it our absolute best, then we will be satisfied with whatever result we have.”
UCLA tees off Monday morning at The Olympic Club in San Francisco.
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