For some Bruin athletes, the term “Triple Crown” is
not exclusive to horse racing.
The No. 2 UCLA women’s golf team won the first leg of its
“Triple Crown” two weeks ago by making easy work of the
competition at the Pac-10 Championships and in doing so got one
step closer to the NCAA Championships.
But in golf, nothing, not even that next step, is
guaranteed.
In a season when the team won four of five of its spring events
and junior Charlotte Mayorkas arguably cemented herself as the top
female collegiate golfer in the country, all that success has
simply translated into an entry ticket into the next race.
That race begins today at the NCAA West Regional to be played on
the par-72, 6,159-yard Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto.
“There’s no reason why we won’t continue to
play well,” said UCLA coach Carrie Forsyth, who will be
hoping to make her fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA
Championships.
“The Regional is a step in the process to nationals, but
it’s not a step we’re worried about.”
The Bruins enter the 21-team field as the top seed, but also in
the precarious position of standing on equal ground with the rest
of their competitors. The field, one of the strongest UCLA has seen
all year, features six top-15 teams, including No. 3 California,
No. 4 Ohio State, No. 7 Georgia, No. 12 Washington and No. 15
Texas.
Only the top eight teams will qualify to go to nationals in
Alabama later this month, imposing a different kind of pressure on
all the golfers.
Play well and move on, or mess up and go home.
“The tension at the tournament will be palpable,”
Forsyth said. “We don’t want to start going backwards
now.”
Mayorkas, Hannah Jun, Susie Mathews, Krystal Shearer and Gina
Umeck will be the lineup at Stanford, the same squad that reigned
triumphant at the conference tournament at Saticoy Country Club two
weeks ago.
The formula for UCLA’s success seems simple. In the
team’s four victories, Mayorkas has claimed medalist honors
all four times, with at least one of her Bruin teammates finishing
beside her in the top 10. While Mayorkas was playing a similar
caliber of golf last year, it’s been the emergence and
consistent play of the entire team that has vaulted the Bruins into
legitimate title contenders.
“It has been a magical season for the whole team
considering where we were before,” said Mayorkas, currently
ranked No. 2 in the country.
“Charlotte is having one of the best seasons I’ve
seen in a long time,” Forsyth added. “But this year,
she knows she has a great team to back her up.”
The squad will be making its second trip to the Stanford Golf
Course, having competed in the Stanford Invitational back in
October. At that tournament, the Bruins compiled a 5-under par
total, a UCLA record at the time, but still finished 14 shots
behind No. 1 Duke.
This time, they expect an even better result, and it
doesn’t hurt that Duke will be teeing it up at a different
regional site.
“I don’t think we’ll have a problem with
qualifying for nationals,” Jun said. “We’re going
to win. We’re the best team here.”