Skill puts w. golf on fairway to national championship
Tournament victories, coupled with new talent make Bruin team title contender
By Paul Jennings
Daily Bruin Contributor
Opening the 1995-96 season in style, the UCLA women's golf team finds itself very much in the hunt for a national championship.
UCLA has held the NCAA top spot for most of the season, but is closely contended by California rival San Jose State. The Bruins won their first four tournaments and followed those wins with three consecutive second-place finishes.
"A strong nucleus of returning players, combined with some talented newcomers, gives us the possibility of contending for a Pac-10 and NCAA title," coach Jackie Steinmann said at the beginning of the season.
After an impressive start, Steinmann, in her 19th year as head coach, and the Bruin squad are now seeing possibility become reality.
Led by seniors Jenny Park and Kathy Choi, the Bruins opened their season with an emphatic victory at the Rolex Fall Preview in La Quinta. UCLA finished 11 strokes ahead of both defending NCAA champion Arizona State and the NCAA runner-up Spartans.
The Bruins continued their success by placing first at the New Mexico Invite, led by sophomore transfer Amandine Vincent's two-under-par performance. First place finishes at the Stanford Intercollegiate and San Diego Fall Classic were secured by strong individual performances from Jenny Park and Jeong Min Park respectively.
UCLA then fell to San Jose State at the Golf World Invite and again lost to the Spartans at the USC Invitational, placing second in both tournaments.
Playing in the USC Invitational at Palos Verdes Country Club, the Bruins led the first two rounds but were overtaken by a nine-under-par final round by the Spartans. Top individual honors for UCLA went to Jenny Park, who tied for second place with a two-under-par 214.
Leading the Bruin team in scoring this season are Jenny Park with a 73.20 average and Kathy Choi with 73.58. Park and Choi have finished in the top 20 a combined 25 times in their UCLA careers and bring experience and leadership to team members Amandine Vincent (75.00), Jeong Min Park (73.35), Eunice Choi (75.64) and Betty Chen (78.00).Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu