This post was updated Oct. 2 at 11:38 p.m.
Although golf is widely considered an individual sport, achieving collegiate success blends individual talent with teamwork and camaraderie.
And new faces are already making waves as UCLA women’s golf begins its 2025 season.
Anchored by sophomore transfer Jenny Lee’s first individual win of her collegiate career, UCLA women’s golf tied for fourth place with a three-round score of 5-under, 859 at the Windy City Collegiate Classic in Golf, Illinois. The Bruins finished a stroke short of SMU and eight strokes behind Duke, which tied tournament-host Northwestern in the 11-team field.
“It was a big adjustment coming from Baylor to UCLA,” Lee said. “But the coaches supported me and helped me to gain my confidence, which was a big thing for playing well this week.”
Lee won her second tournament appearance as a Bruin with a 54-hole score of 8-under, including a personal-best score of 68 in Monday’s second round.
Lee, who is one of four new athletes on the Bruins’ eight-player roster, added that the guidance from her coaching staff and teammates has helped her adjust to a new environment.
“We wanted to create an environment that was process-oriented that could allow for her to have some fun and freedom,” said coach Alicia Um Holmes, “What we did in practice on a daily basis was the same as what we did in the tournament.”
Um Holmes added that Lee did not know she was close to the lead when her final round concluded Tuesday.
UCLA’s final score from the par 72 Glen View Club was an improvement from the Bruins’ 35-over, 899 performance in 2024, when the squad placed eighth. The performance featured a three-round stretch that included a 19-over team score across the final 18 holes.
“It was a marathon out there,” Um Holmes said, “We played from sunup to sundown, and the girls were really patient; they stayed composed, they kept trying and gave their best effort.”
Um Holmes – who is entering her third year leading the program and 20th year overall as a coach at UCLA – notched her first win as a head coach at 2023’s Windy City Collegiate Classic, the same season that she was named Golfweek’s Women’s Coach of the Year and helped lead the Bruins to an NCAA championship appearance.
Lee and sophomore Maye Huang were the only two to finish under par across the three rounds of the five Bruin qualifiers. Huang, a preseason Big Ten watchlist player, registered a total score of 2-under par and tied for 14th place, the third top-20 finish of her collegiate career.
“Everyone had steady play and we all stayed in the moment and had fun, which is important,” Huang said, “We’re basically like a family so everyone gets along really well with each other.”
Her second round and collegiate-best score of 69 across 18 holes helped fuel Huang’s under par performance.
But even though the top two scorers excelled and the team shot under par in the last two rounds, the Bruins could not catch the Blue Devils and Wildcats atop the leaderboard.
“We didn’t have the greatest day collectively on the greens,” Um Holmes said, “Many putts were missed and our score doesn’t really reflect how well the team did.”
UCLA will travel to Palo Alto, California, to take on No.1 Stanford – the team that defeated the Bruins in the 2024 NCAA Championship – in a weekend slate that begins Oct. 17.
“The coaches always tell us to only focus on what we can do on the course,” Lee said. “I think that’s going to be the key for myself and everyone as well.”
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