Men's golf qualifies for fourth consecutive NCAA Championships

If one of their worst performances was good enough to get into the NCAA Championships, the Bruins know they have a lot to look forward to next week, and a lot of work to do as well.

Entering the final round tied for ninth place, UCLA was on the verge of a huge disappointment. However, the team came up big, shooting a 286 (-2) – one of the lowest scores of the day – in the final round.

“It feels good to just get through. That’s the whole thing about regionals – you just want to get through. Now we get to go to nationals and start with a clean slate,” sophomore Kevin Chappell said.

When the tournament was over, the Bruins had managed to finish seventh in the East Regional with a three-round total of 878 (+14). UCLA’s place among the top ten teams means it qualifies for the NCAA Championships, for the fourth year in a row.

Wake Forest surged past the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs with a final round score of 283 (-5) to finish atop the East Regional. Wake Forest finished with a three-day total of 864 (E), while USC finished tied for 15th at +31 (895).

“I think we have a lot of positives to take from (this weekend). For our team to play our worst game and still take seventh, that should tell us something about where our team is,” freshman Erik Flores said.

“We finished 14 shots back – that’s 3 shots per person and we would have won. If we played our best, it could have easily been a victory,” he said.

Chappell led the Bruins’ charge on the final day, carding a 4-under to beat out three other players for first place by one stroke.

Although sophomore Daniel Im and Flores led the team all season long, it was Chappell who came up big for the Bruins during regionals.

“Kevin’s a great player and he’s had struggles early on in the season, but it’s just a matter of playing good at the right times. He’s a clutch player and he played smart golf this weekend. His performance is what put us over the edge,” Flores said.

With the regionals now behind them, the Bruins have to look forward to next week’s NCAA Championships in Oregon and begin preparing for the bigger challenge. The team knows a performance like the one it had this weekend won’t cut it there.

Whether in the form of better drives, more accurate putts or merely confidence, the Bruins know they have room for improvement as they get ready to take on the nation’s best teams for the title.

“We just didn’t look very confident this weekend,” Chappell said. “There were a lot of nerves for all of us, but now everyone knows what they (have) to do. We can’t have one or two guys play well and expect to win. We need everyone to come through.”