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UCLA women’s golf coach Carrie Forsyth watches freshman Jane Park’s drive at the NCAA

After the UCLA women’s golf team captured the national championship in 2004, coach Carrie Forsyth had the hats of each Bruin on the team adorned with the number “92.”

It was a reminder that the five golfers who took home the NCAA Championship trophy from Opelika, Ala., that year were part of UCLA’s championship tradition, bringing home the program’s 92nd national title.

This year, Susie Mathews, Hannah Jun, Amie Cochran, Jane Park and Tiffany Joh have an opportunity to stake a much bigger claim to UCLA lore, not to mention trophy cabinet space in the J.D. Morgan Center.

“It was nice to be 92,” Mathews said. “But it was at that point we started thinking about 100.”

Yet while the second-ranked Bruins have enjoyed contemplating the significance of clinching UCLA’s 100th national title, they profess it will be the least of their concerns as they tee off today in the first round of the NCAA Championships at the Ohio State University Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio.

“We won’t be thinking about it once we’re there,” Mathews said.

In fact, Forsyth thinks the Bruins, winners of three of their last four tournaments, don’t have to do much thinking at all.

Their putting is crisp.

Their ball striking is pure.

Their nerves are nonexistent.

“One thing that we need to really do a lot better job of at the NCAAs is avoid having the girls aware of how they stood to par,” Forsyth said. “They got a little wrapped up in the score rather than just playing each shot. That type of thinking wasn’t conducive to good scoring.”

Their own impatience is not all that the Bruins will have to combat in Columbus over the next four days in order to bring back UCLA’s 100th national championship:

The weather

While the conditions for the first two rounds appear to be partly cloudy skies and warm temperatures, the forecast calls for thunderstorms during the last two rounds, which could push the four-day event into the weekend. But that may not be a detriment to UCLA.

The last time the NCAA Championships’ schedule was altered because of weather conditions was in 2004, when the Bruins capitalized on the respite offered by a sporadic thunderstorm to win the national title.

The course

The Scarlet Course on the Ohio State University campus, measuring over 7,000 yards from the back tees, is as foreign to the Bruins as a last-place finish.

Though in previous years UCLA was invited to play a practice round on the course hosting the championship, that wasn’t possible on the Scarlet Course, which over the past two years underwent a $4.2 million renovation and only recently was reopened.

The result is a course battered by inclement weather and a layout that none of the Bruins knows much about. “We haven’t even seen it,” said Forsyth prior to traveling to Columbus last Friday. “All we know is that the course has been drowning in water.”

The opponent

The last two NCAA Women’s Golf Championships came down to final-round showdowns between UCLA and Duke. Again this year, the Bruins and Blue Devils have separated themselves from the rest of the teams in Division I.

Today and Wednesday, the two teams will get an up-close and personal view of one another, as UCLA and Duke will be paired together for at least the first two rounds, and potentially more.

“Playing with (Duke) is going to be fun,” Mathews said.

The x-factor

For the next four days, her name will be Hannah Jun. Jun played only one tournament this season after recovering from spinal injuries sustained as a passenger in a car accident on Dec. 10, 2005. She will be asked to bring a consistency to UCLA that has been lacking for much of the season. Though she is one of the Bruins’ shorter drivers of the golf ball, when healthy, she is one of the team’s most consistent scorers.

And at the grueling four-round, 72-hole NCAA Championship tournament, avoiding a potentially bad score is more significant than posting a good one.