UCLA Women’s Golf Has a Rough Day, Falls to Second at NCAA Championships

I don’t know who said “a bad day of golf is better than a good day of work,” but it was certainly true yesterday for the UCLA Women’s Golf team.

That’s because the Bruins shot their worst round of golf of the three rounds played so far. UCLA shot a 9-over 297 yesterday which dropped the Bruins from first place to second place behind Alabama. Overall, the Crimson Tide is now 2-under par while the Bruins are 6-over par.

The good news is that it doesn’t really matter.

That’s because, as we learned back in 2016, finishing first in stroke play simply gets you the top seed for the match play portion of the tournament.

Speaking of 2016, rather ironically, UCLA was in second place after three rounds then too and they came back with a big fourth round to finish first. Of course, that team eventually lost to Washington in the semifinals of match play and this year’s team should go farther than the 2016 team.

The best Bruin yesterday was sophomore Mariel Galdiano who shot a par 72. After three rounds, Galdiano is tied for 10th place individually with a par 216.

The highest ranked Bruin on the individual leaderboard continues to be junior Lilian Vu. Vu, who shot a 3-over 75 yesterday, has a 1-under 215 through three rounds, which ties her for seventh individually. She is 6 strokes behind Alabama’s Cheyenne Knight and Wake Forest’s Jennifer Kupcho who are tied for first with a score of 7-under 209.

Freshman Patty Tavatanakit shot her first over par round yesterday when she shot a 3-over 75. That puts her tied for 13th with a 1-over 217.

Junior Beth Wu is tied for 35th after three rounds with a 6-over 222 following yesterday’s round where she shot 3-over 75.

Sophomore Clare Legaspi remained UCLA’s fifth best golfer yesterday with a 4-over 76 and is now tied for 62nd with a 14-over 230.

The Bruins will tee off today at 10:50 am PT; however, the NBC Golf Channel will televise and stream today’s action starting a few hours later at 1 pm PT.

Both the Bruins, as a team, and Lilian Vu, as an individual, will need to have very good days if they want to catch team leader Alabama, Knight and Kupcho and win the team stroke play portion of the match and the individual championship, respectively.

This is your NCAA Women’s Golf Championships open thread.


Go Bruins!!! Bring home 117!!!