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  UCLA Sports Information Sophomore J.T. Kohut rounds out the five-man squad at the NCAA Championships in Durham, N.C. this week.

By Pauline Vu

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

From the very first tournament, the members of the men’s golf team knew it was going to be a different year.

In the fall, the team headed out to Oregon with a contingent consisting of Head Coach Brad Sherfy, returning sophomores Travis Johnson and J.T. Kohut, and three true freshmen, John Merrick, Steve Conway and Roy Moon.

Even though it was fairly late when they got off the plane, the three freshmen wanted to head to the golf course right away and squeeze in a couple of hours of practice.

Whoa ... say what?

“Typically we fly in, get there in the evening and don’t even consider practicing,” Johnson said. But the team headed to the course anyway.

“I remember the sun going down and thinking, ‘This is gonna be a good year,’” Johnson said.

The team has done a 180 compared to what it was last year. Last year’s team didn’t show up for weight training and often skipped practice. Last year’s team spoke negatively about each other. Last year’s team failed to make the NCAA Championships despite having all the talent in the world.

“We had so much talent last year, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have made nationals,” Johnson said. “Guys just didn’t put in the time. It’s one thing having talent, it’s one thing doing something with your talent.”

Something had to be done.

So after last season ended, Sherfy took three players who would’ve been seniors this year off the team.

  UCLA Sports Information Junior co-captain Parker McLachlin leads the team in his first-ever NCAA Championship. This year's team has worked hard to earn their shot at the championships. “They weren’t performing well on the course, they weren’t performing well in school and weren’t doing much good for the team,” Johnson said. “I think Brad made a very tough decision, but the right decision, and I fully support him the whole way through.”

It wasn’t just the failure to make nationals that inspired that move. Last year’s team also had to deal with a lot of personal turmoil.

“Someone was always saying something behind someone else’s back,” junior Parker McLachlin said. “Guys who weren’t traveling were always like, ‘Why is he traveling? I should be traveling.’”

McLachlin, clearly frustrated, continued, “It was like, ‘Well, quit skipping practice. Quit skipping the weight room.’”

Johnson was one of two freshman last year and remembered being unhappy with the way things stood.

“I hated last year. I was the only golfer on campus and I made most of the trips last year and the guys weren’t really used to having a newcomer come in and break the lineup,” he recalled. “They were used to their five buddy-buddies making the lineup, so I got a lot of grief because I was taking one of their spots.”

But from the very beginning of this season, things have been different. For one, the team actually works hard in the weight room.

This was a big issue last year, when out of 11 golfers maybe only four would show up for weights.

“It was like a joke,” McLachlin said.

It was so funny that all the other weight coaches would make fun of Stephane Rochet, the team’s weight coach last year, because he had to work with the men’s golf team.

Rochet left UCLA earlier this year, but not before telling the golf team this, according to McLachlin: “Last year all the other weight coaches gave me (crap) about you guys, but this year you guys have earned their respect and earned my respect.”

This year, golfers not only go to practice, they enjoy it and even go above and beyond by practicing for hours on their own.

Sherfy chose not to comment on last year’s situation, but did offer his view about this year’s team. “I will say that this is the hardest working team that I’ve had. It’s got the best attitude of any team that I’ve had.”

That’s one of the biggest changes, the fact that players support their coach and each other and have a camaraderie that was missing last year.

“You get rid of some bad seeds and put in some good seeds,” McLachlin said, then corrected himself. “Not even good seeds. Just guys who are willing to work and freshmen who are enthusiastic about playing. It’s like an entirely different feel on our team.”

And maybe that’s what resulted in the biggest change of all: last year’s team didn’t made the cut to the NCAA Championships. This year’s did.