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Roy Moon and the UCLA men’s golf team tee off today in the first round of the NCAA Champion

When UCLA men’s golf coach O.D. Vincent exits the parking lot every day after work, he steals a subtle glance to his right at the golf practice facility on campus. At that time of day, it’s usually empty.

But for the last three weeks, Vincent has peered out his car window and witnessed something different. Each and every night he leaves Westwood, three of four members of the men’s golf team are out there practicing their putting and chipping.

The socializing has died down. The game faces have been sewn on.

“It’s the extra things that, as a coach, when you see them go the extra mile, you can tell this is what they’ve been waiting for,” Vincent said.

The No. 3 UCLA men’s golf team tees up today for the first round of the NCAA Championships at the Cascades Course on the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Va. Its year-long goal will finally be in sight, its chance to improve on last year’s third-place finish finally realized.

For most of the players, it’s a sight for sore eyes. Having trudged through a mediocre regular season, they’ve vowed that they’d pick up their games when the tournaments took on more significance. Now they’re at the end of the line.

“I’ve always played better come the bigger tournaments,” said senior Travis Johnson, who is coming off his first individual title at the NCAA West Regional. “I get too bored with the normal tournaments. If we play up to our standard, I think we’ll win by 10 shots. I know it’s a bold statement, but we’re really close to being right there.”

All that awaits them are 72 grueling holes of golf and 29 other teams with just as much to play for. Meeting the challenge will be the regular lineup of seniors Johnson, Steve Conway, John Merrick and Roy Moon, and junior John Poucher.

The squad will be making its second trip to the Cascades this season, having already scored a come-from-behind victory at the Fall Preview back in September.

At that tournament, Poucher secured his first individual collegiate title, and the Bruins blistered the course in their final round to make up a seven-shot deficit.

While they’ve shown they can win at the Cascades, they also realize the ease with which leads can evaporate.

“No lead is big enough at this place,” Vincent said.

The course, tricky and tempting, has brought about a change in philosophy for how Vincent prepares his players before the event.

Acknowledging the fact that it’s very unlikely that any team will run away and hide from the rest of the field, Vincent has instilled in his players the belief that the championship will be a two-part tournament.

According to Vincent, the first 68 holes represent the marathon portion of the championship, of which Vincent solely wants his team to be in the hunt. And then comes the four-hole mad dash to the finish line.

The Cascades features the rare arrangement of the last four holes being comprised of two reachable par-5’s and two par-3’s, a stretch of golf where anything can happen.

“It’s going to be like a long distance race in a track meet, pacing yourself for the first however many laps, and then it’s going to come down to a sprint on the last lap,” Vincent said. “I hope I have a chance to be nervous over those last four holes.”

“If a team catches fire, anything can happen,” Moon added. “We’re going to put our heads down and grind every shot out. If we’re not mentally tired at the end of the tournament, we didn’t do something right.”

Sources of inspiration heading into the event are numerous for the Bruins.

Having failed to meet everyone’s exceedingly high expectations thus far, a victory would certainly go a long way in silencing critics, most notably those who believe the championship to be a two-horse race between Clemson and Florida.

“The feeling I’ve had about the team this year is that things haven’t gone quite as well as they should have, and it’s nice to have that standard set,” said Vincent, who concedes Florida is the favorite heading into the event.

The championship also marks the final chapter in the careers of the senior “Fab Four.”

“I’m kind of embracing it,” Johnson said. “We’ve got a great opportunity to do something here.”

But perhaps their biggest source of motivation was the feat accomplished by their female counterparts just one week ago.

“When we found out that the women had won the national championship, it couldn’t have given us any more motivation,” Vincent said. “It really gave us a shot in the arm. After seeing them win, we feel our chances are that much better. They paved the way.”