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UCLA Resumes Season at Southwestern Invitational

Jan 23, 2022
Devon Bling

LOS ANGELES – The UCLA men's golf team returns to action for the spring season competing in the Southwestern Invitational held at the North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village, Calif. The 54-hole stroke play event begins Monday, Jan. 24 and runs through Wednesday, Jan. 26.
 
Live action from the event will be aired on the Golf Channel beginning at 1:30 p.m. PT. Live scoring is available at this link.
 
UCLA's starting five will be composed of graduates Devon Bling and Eddy Lai and freshmen Evan Chien, Pablo Ereño Perez and Alvaro Muller Baumgart Lucena. Chien will be making his collegiate debut.
 
Joining the Bruins in the 12-team field is tournament host and defending National Champion No. 2 Pepperdine as well as four other top-20 teams: No. 3 Arizona State, No. 7 Texas, No. 10 Wake Forest, No. 16 Georgia and No. 20 Washington. Rounding out the participating teams is San Diego State, San Jose State, SMU, USC and UNLV.
 
Four of the country's top golfers, according to Golfweek, will be competing in the event: Pepperdine's Joe Highsmith, Georgia's Trent Phillips, Washington's RJ Manke and Arizona State's Cameron Sisk.
 
Bling enters the competition as one of just two Bruins who have competed in every tournament this season, averaging 73 strokes per round. In UCLA's last tournament of the fall season at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Invitational, Bling shot a 5-over, 221 through three rounds, including a 1-under 71 on day two.
 
At that same event, Lai recorded back-to-back 1-under 71 rounds before ultimately finishing with a score of 3-over 219.
 
Muller has competed in two tournaments this season – Blessings Collegiate Invitational and Wolf Pack Classic – and is averaging 75.3 strokes per round.
 
Ereño Perez shot a 12-over 228 in his first and only three rounds of competition this season at the Blessings Collegiate Invitational. His best score was an even-par 72, coming on day two.