Men's golf travels to Oregon Invitational

Published: Monday, March 6, 1995

By Yoni Tamler

The UCLA men's golf team begins its March play at the Oregon Duck Invitational in Eugene today, where it expects to finish markedly higher than in recent tournaments.

The Bruins will not have to manage with a field so rich in talent as the one they faced two weeks ago in Hawaii. Approximately half of the competition was ranked in the top twenty, including the three top-ranked teams in the nation.

"(The Oregon Invitational) is a field we should be very competitive in," UCLA head coach Dave Atchison said. "I would like to see us finish in the top three because our biggest competitor is Stanford. After that its a toss-up between us and a few other teams."

According to Atchison, if UCLA plays well, the only teams that pose a threat to UCLA of the sixteen teams competing are Brigham Young and No. 2 Stanford.

"We've got a good team, they're just inconsistent right now," Atchison said. "Every three-round tournament we'll have two good days and one bad day, and that one day keeps killing us. What we're working on is to get that one bad day to be OK, which keeps us in the hunt, and then the other days will help us in the tournament."

The weather in Eugene could also play a key role. Although the Bruins fared extremely well in their last tournament riddled by rain, they might not be so fortunate this week.

"This time of year it can be very wet and soggy with all the rain they get up there," Atchison said. "This will be a different type of rain (than in Hawaii) - a cold rain, so we'll see what happens.

"Eric Lohman will be primed for a good tournament because he lived up in Washington for a couple of years, winning the Washington State Amateur, and he has a lot of family friends coming out to watch him, so he's fired up to play well."

Lohman leads the Bruin lineup of Kevin Rhodes, Mike Miller, and Brian Bock. Sophomore Trevor Arts will also compete for UCLA after initially jeopardizing his status on the starting team.