UCLA Tees Up at the Pac-12 Championships
LOS ANGELES – The No. 17 UCLA women's golf team opens its postseason at the 2022 Pac-12 Women's Golf Championships set to take place April 18-20 at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.
The three-day, 54-hole stroke play competition will play at par-72 and 6,267 yards for its fourth-ever staging at Eugene CC (1991, 2000, 2010).
Daily highlights of each round as well as full coverage of the final round on Wednesday will be aired on the Pac-12 Networks.
The Bruins' starting five is composed on Emma Spitz, Caroline Canales, Emilie Paltrinieri, Ty Akabane and Alessia Nobilio. Zoe Antoinette Campos will be competing individually.
UCLA is coming off its first victory of the season at the Chambers Bay Invitational last week, winning in a landslide by 18 strokes (+12, 876). The Bruins blitzed the course with a 6-under 282 in round two that enabled them to surge into first place with a nine-stroke lead heading into the final round.
Emma Spitz, the No. 11 collegiate women's golfer in the nation (Golfstat), recorded her third career victory at Chambers Bay and was the only player in the field to finish under par at 1-under 215 (68-70-77). Spitz leads the Bruins with 11 under par rounds and a scoring average of 71.8. She enters this postseason with three consecutive top-6 finishes, including a runner-up performance at the PING/ASU Invitational at the end of March (-7, 209).
Spitz also competed at the third annual Augusta National Women's Amateur two weeks ago finishing tied for 12th at 5-over 221.
Canales has finished in the top 10 three times this season and has had each of her last 12 rounds count towards the team's overall score.
Paltrinieri notched the best finish of her career at Chambers Bay at T-2nd behind Spitz (+1, 217). Four of her top-20 placings this season have come in the Bruins' last five competitions.
PAIRINGS
Nobilio will tee off first for the Bruins from hole one beginning at 8 a.m. PT tomorrow morning. Akabane (8:09 a.m.), Paltrinieri (8:18 a.m.), Canales (8:27 a.m.) and Spitz (8:36 a.m.) will follow.
UCLA AT THE PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
UCLA tied for fifth at last year's event (+23, 875) on the Stanford Golf Course with Spitz and Annabel Wilson leading the Bruins with two top-10 finishes.
UCLA has won seven Pac-10/12 conference titles, five of which coming with Head Coach Carrie Forsyth at the helm of the program. Forsyth's last conference championship was three seasons ago (excluding the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened season) in 2018 at Broadmoor Golf Club.
The Bruins' last competition at the Eugene CC was the NCAA Championships in May 2016 in which UCLA won the stroke play title behind three top-11 placings from Lilia Vu, Bronte Law and Louise Ridderstorm.
THE FIELD
The 11-team field will feature nine of Golfweek's Top 50 ranked programs.
No. 1 Stanford
No. 2 Oregon
No. 7 Arizona State
No. 9 USC
No. 17 UCLA
No. 25 Arizona
No. 32 Oregon State
No. 44 Washington
No. 50 California
Eight of the 15 members on the ANNIKA Award national player of the year watch list as well 11 top 25 golfers in Golfstat's player rankings are in the field at the Pac-12 Championships:
Rose Zhang, Fr., Stanford (No. 1, ANNIKA Award Watch List)
Alexandra Forsterling, Sr., Arizona State (No. 2, ANNIKA Award Watch List)
Amari Avery, Fr., USC (No. 4, ANNIKA Award Watch List)
Aline Krauter, Sr., Stanford (No. 9, ANNIKA Award Watch List)
Brooke Seay, Jr., Stanford (No. 11 in Golfweek player rankings)
Emma Spitz, Jr., UCLA (No. 11, ANNIKA Award Watch List)
Hsin-Yu (Cynthia) Lu, So., Oregon (No. 14)
Tze-Han (Heather) Lin, Sr., Oregon (No. 15)
Sofie Kibsgaard Nielsen, Jr., Oregon (No. 20)
Ching-Tzu Chen, Jr., Oregon (No. 23)
Carolina Melgrati, Fr., Arizona (No. 24)
Calynne Rosholt, Fr., Arizona State (No. 24, ANNIKA Award Watch List)
Ashley Menne, So., Arizona State (No. 33)
Ellie Slama, Sr., Oregon State (No. 43)
Katherine Muzi, Sr., USC (No. 44)
Camille Boyd, So., Washington (No. 47)
Rachel Heck, So., Stanford (No. 49, ANNIKA Award Watch List)
Xin (Cindy) Kou, Fr., USC (No. 75, ANNIKA Award Watch List)