2010-2011 Bruins ready to get started!

Ranked 4th in the pre-season polls...

Two juniors, two sophomores, and one freshman...

How far can they go?

How good can they be?

It will be awesome!

Strong Season Comes to an End

The young Bruins finished the 2009-2010 campaign at The Honors Course in Chattanooga, TN with a 16th place finish. Although we did not make the match play portion of the championship, we had a shot going into the final 9 holes of our 3rd round...we just came up short and the season ended their in the darkness of the Tennessee night.

The season had many highlights including two victories in the spring, the first coming at the Innagural "Battle at the Beach" and the second coming at what proved to be the strongest field of year in Las Vegas.

We also had 2 players earn Honorable Mention All-American status. Alex Shi Yup Kim and Gregor Main both earned the honor after leading the young Bruins with consistent play and strong leadership all year. Alex's season included four top-10 finishes and a 71.6 scoring average. Gregor led the Bruins with a 71.0 scoring average and five top-10 finishes.

In the classroom, we continued our success with Pedro Figueiredo, Bobby Lange, Connor Driscoll and Pontus Widegren all earning academic honors. Connor Driscoll was honored by the Pac-10 earning All-Academic status for his consistent work through his junior year.

Freshman Pontus Widegren was honored by the GCAA for his outstanding play this year, earning one of five spots on the All-Freshman team.

We are looking for big things to come over the next few years with this group. Although the season did not end like we would of liked, we will continue to build on the positives...Keep in mind, this year's Bruin team was the youngest team of all the 30 squads competing at the National Championship. Good things ahead!

Pac-10's and beyond...

Safe to say that our Pac-10 Championship did not go according to plan. It was once said that in golf, you are never as good as your best day...or never as bad as your worst day. The final round of our Pac-10 tourney was probably our worst day of the season. Not to dwell on the poor finish, we quickly regrouped yesterday with some individual meetings focusing on preparing for the NCAA Regional.

Not knowing where we will be shipped is fine by us...the 6 sites are all fantastic and each offer different tests for the teams in the field. Our guys are eager to find out where we will play next and are all excited about the upcoming event. Regionals is typically the toughest event of the year and our guys are excited for this opportunity to compete.

For now, it's back to the classroom for work on our academics. It was a crazy month of April and we have a little catching up to do on the books. Our last quarter was very successful as we placed 5 out of 8 guys on the honor roll (3.0 or higher) and 3 of those guys were presidential honor students (3.5 or higher). We are proud of the work that is being done by our team both in the classroom and on the golf course. Our goal here at UCLA is to have the most balanced group of student athletes in the country. Competing in everything we do.

Happy Easter! Bruins finish 2nd @ ASU

From the start it seemed to be a three horse race between the Wildcats, Trojans, and Bruins...but a final round charge by the Huskies upstaged that three team dual. The Huskies fired a 16 under par final round that gave them the 2 shot victory when it was all said and done.

We started the day just like we wanted, coming out hot and jumping up into the hunt after 4 holes...the middle stretch of this course is where you have to make your run...8-14 is the stretch that will be the difference come Pac-10's in three weeks..we didn't take advantage of these holes and it cost us in the end. 10 and 14 are par 5's you have to birdie and we didn't capitalize there.

The guys fought hard coming down the stretch but it just wasn't enough...and the last 3 holes are not where you can make many birdies. 16 is a typical Pete Dye par 3, 215 with agua all the way up the right side...pretty intimidating at that point in the round, not a hole you can get greedy on. 18 is another beast...475 cape hole with H20 all the way down the left. A par on these two is all you can ask for...no doubt the Pac-10 title will be decided here.

We have a lot of work to do this coming week to prepare for Stanford next week. Our putting needs to improve along with the wedges...we will get better. This is still a very young team...

Great week for Mario and Figgy...3 freshman and 2 soph's competing with the best in the country. This final 6 weeks of the season is going to be exciting.

Thanks for following...twitter is my new thing btw, check us out @ucla_bruin18. I apologize for typo's...posting this one from my rental car @6am instead of watching the range on a recruiting trip. Memo to all jr's, I am not very concerned with your golf swing...be tough, be strong, be a good putter.

Out.

Happy Easter! Bruins finish 2nd @ ASU

Gregor Main competes at Bay Hill

It was an exciting week for the Bruins as one of our own got to tee it up in a PGA Tour event. Sophomore Gregor Main played in his second career Tour event this week at Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Invite. Gregor opened with 76 in round one, then fought hard in round 2 to get back into the hunt for his second made cut. He had it four deep with 3 to play but couldn't quite get it in the house...He bogied 2 of his final 3 to miss the cut by 1 shot. He finished with a 2-under par 70 in round 2.

It was definitely a great experience for Gregor. We were all very proud of his accomplishment. He represented Bruin nation proudly...Onto ASU!

First Victory!!!

The Bruins are back on top! We just wrapped up our first victory of the 2010 season in dramatic fashion. This one came right down to the wire as four teams had a shot to win the inaugural Battle at the Beach. We outlasted Washington, Oregon State and Arkansas to claim the victory by one shot.

The final round had many highlights. Freshman Pontus Widegren led our charge with a fantastic final round of 7-under 64. He played flawless golf out there on the North Ocean course at Pelican Hill...his round included a eagle on the par-4 13th, where he holed out a gap wedge from 115 to vault us into the lead.

Alex Kim carded a final round 1-under par 70 that included a clutch uphill 10-footer on the final hole for birdie that helped seal the deal. Alex had 17 straight pars and then closed with the clinching birdie. Patience paid off for Alex and the rest of the Bruins today.

Gregor Main and Connor Driscoll played solid all week and their consistency really helped us keep momentum and eventually claim the title...both the veteran's chipped in with 1-under par 70's in the final round. Gregor is playing some of the best golf of his career right now and is poised for a big spring season.

Special thanks to Pelican Hill and Long Beach State for taking great care of everyone this week. The Battle is a special event and we look forward to competing each and every year!

Next up for the Bruins is the USC Invitational at North Ranch in sunny So Cal...we hope to see you all out there!

~212