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Junior Hannah Jun is tied for 77th place in the NCAA Championships.

NEW YORK — Maybe it’s the Scarlet Course’s recently renovated greens, which are hard as rocks and as undulating as a turtle’s shell.

Maybe it’s the course’s first cut of rough, as unforgiving as the Bruins have played in all season and, at least from their perspective, infringing on more and more of the tight fairways.

Maybe it was the expectation of living up to a No. 2 ranking and claiming UCLA’s 100th national title.

The Bruins don’t know the reason why they’re tied for 13th place and an insurmountable 34 shots behind first-place Duke at the NCAA Championship at Ohio State, and UCLA certainly didn’t come any closer to finding it during Thursday’s third round.

In their last opportunity to make something of the season’s final tournament, the Bruins shot a collective 15-over par, are now closer to the bottom of the leaderboard than the top, and ensured that today’s final round will remain largely irrelevant with respect to the 2006 season.

“I don’t have any answers,” UCLA coach Carrie Forsyth said. “For whatever reason this week, we don’t look solid. We don’t look sharp. And I don’t know why.

“A lot of little things are going wrong, and it’s adding up to a lot.”

The Bruins weren’t exactly the healthiest or most experienced team coming into the NCAA Championships.

This week’s championship tournament only marked Hannah Jun’s second event back since recovering from spinal cord injuries sustained as a passenger in a car accident Dec. 10, 2005.

Amid a grueling course and some adverse weather, the junior has struggled, posting rounds of 76, 78 and 79 to put her in a tie for 77th place at 17-over par after three rounds.

This week’s championship tournament was also the first opportunity for freshmen Jane Park and Tiffany Joh, both ranked among the top seven golfers in the country, to experience a championship event on a collegiate level.

Each has struggled mightily, as Joh and Park are tied for 50th and 77th, respectively.

In fact, the only Bruin to survive the Scarlet Course’s wrath this week has been sophomore Amie Cochran, who is poised for her second consecutive top-10 finish at the NCAA Championships.

Cochran, the only Bruin this week to avoid a double bogey or worse through three rounds, carded her second consecutive 1-under par 71 on Thursday and is 4-over par and tied for ninth heading into tomorrow’s final round.

“She’s hit it really well the last two rounds,” Forsyth said. “Everyone else hasn’t hit the ball well. We’re missing fairways, the rough is deep, and the chances are you’re going to miss the green, and then you’re fighting to get up-and-down.

“Basically if you’re not on this week, you’re not going to win,” Forsyth said. “And we certainly have not been on.”

UCLA’s playing partners during the first two rounds, the Duke Blue Devils, have been on. After a shaky first round, No. 1 Duke came back with collective rounds of 4-over par and 1-under par to grab a dominating yet not invincible 13-shot lead heading into today’s final round.

The Blue Devils will be seeking their second consecutive NCAA Championships victory today, and from Forsyth’s perspective, it will be difficult for any other team to be stepping to the trophy podium this afternoon.

“What they shot today was a phenomenal score,” Forsyth said. “I’m extremely impressed.

“I wanted us to shoot around even par, and thought we would have moved forward. Instead Duke leapfrogged the entire field.”

The Bruins haven’t thrown in the towel yet, though they may be clutching for it. After Wednesday’s disappointing second round, Forsyth brought her team back to the hotel to relax and take their minds off of what was at that point a disappointing tournament.

After Thursday’s round, UCLA was actually greeted with some good news.

The Bruins sank low enough on the leaderboard to guarantee themselves a morning tee time today, when the conditions are expected to be much more benevolent than in the afternoon.

But at the start of the week, teeing off in the morning of the final round wasn’t where UCLA envisioned it would be.

“Is it frustrating? A little,” Forsyth said. “I know they’re giving their best. They really are trying hard. But it’s disappointing. Nothing is coming together. Some of that is the nature of our sport.

“We’ll be back next year,” said Forsyth, before making sure to point out, “but this year is not even over yet.”