Thursday, May 14, 1998
Bruins about to tee off for Regionals
MEN’S GOLF: Five players
to compete against top schools in tournament
By Moin Salahuddin
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA men’s golf team has already accomplished many goals for
this stellar season, including capturing five tournament wins and a
recent second-place finish at the Pac-10 Championships. But, they
have several more objectives that have yet to be fulfilled.
The No. 20 Bruins will be traveling to the NCAA West Regionals
this weekend to compete against the best in the West. Visiting the
home of Pac-10 champions Arizona State, UCLA aims for a high finish
in order to advance to the NCAA Championships.
UCLA will be sending its top five competitors to this crucial
tournament: juniors B.J. Schlagenhauf and Brandon DiTullio;
sophomore Jason Semelsberger; and freshmen Ross Fulgentis and Jeff
McGraw. The top four scores will count toward the team’s total
score in this 54-hole championship.
"I’m really looking forward to (NCAA West Regionals),"
Schlagenhauf said. "Obviously, it’s one of our biggest tournaments
of the year. I think if we just keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll
put ourselves in a position to go on to the NCAA
Championships."
The Bruins are in familiar territory, having played on the
Karsten Golf Course (par 72, 7,027 yards) once before. Less than
one month ago, UCLA won the ASU Thunderbird/Savane Invitational
while DiTullio captured medalist honors. The Bruins defeated many
of the teams they will be facing today, including current Pac-10
champions Arizona State and the top-ranked team in the nation,
UNLV.
"It’s gonna be fun," Schlagenhauf said. "We just have to stay
focused, take care of school and do what we need to do as
individuals to be prepared. What makes us a good team is that we
are a bunch of individuals that are trying to do the best we
can.
"Everybody’s going out there and trying to win the golf
tournament. If everybody does that and plays to the best of their
ability, then we will play well as a team."
The NCAA Committee selects 18 teams and three individuals from
Districts 7 and 8. The teams competing from District 8 are UNLV,
Arizona, ASU, UCLA, Washington, USC, Pacific, Oregon, New Mexico
State, California, Cal-Irvine and UC Santa Barbara. Joel Kribel of
Stanford is the individual competitor. From District 7, the six
teams participating include New Mexico, BYU, Colorado State, UTEP,
Nevada Reno and Fresno State. The individuals are James Stewart of
San Diego State and Jarrod Warner of Boise State.
The top nine teams along with the top two individuals will
advance to the NCAA Championships held May 27-30 in Albuquerque,
N.M.
"There’s no telling what could happen (at the NCAA
Championships)," Schlagenhauf said. "Pepperdine is a perfect
example of a team that didn’t do great during the season but they
won (the 1997 NCAA Championship). And you would have teams that
were great throughout the year but didn’t make the cut or didn’t
play well in the tournament. Basically, the way college golf is set
up, everything comes down to those Regionals and the NCAA
Championships.
"The NCAA Championship is like the major of college golf,
everything else is just preparation for it," he said.