The UCSD golf team started off its preseason play on Sept. 17 and Sept. 18 by placing fifth in a field of 29 teams at the Gold Rush California Collegiate Golf Showcase hosted by UCLA at the PGA of Southern California Golf Club in Beaumont, Calif.
The Tritons finished their lone round on Sept. 17 with a score of 280, eight under par of 288, which put the team in a tie for first with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Coming back on Sept. 18, UCSD posted a 292 in the morning round and a 294 in the afternoon. Overall, the team turned in a score of 866, two over par, which was enough to beat cross-town rival San Diego State.
Tournament host UCLA took first place, shooting rounds of 283, 282 and 276, giving the Bruins an overall total of 841. Stanford University took a distant second by posting scores of 288, 278 and 288, finishing with an 854.
UC Riverside came in third, as it netted rounds of 292, 286 and 279 to give the team 857 overall. St. Mary’s rounded out the schools that bested UCSD, managing to turn in scores of 290, 284 and 285 for a grand total of 859, seven strokes ahead of the Tritons.
Rounds of 289, 297 and 284 for the Aztecs were enough to get SDSU six over par to 870 for an eighth-place finish. UC Davis finished ninth with an 874 and UC Irvine finished 13th by shooting 882.
Individually, UCSD was led by a pair of familiar faces, as senior Brian Duckworth merited top honors for the team with his 12th-place finish in a field of over 170 players. Duckworth got right down to business on Sept. 17, starting off the tournament with a score of 67, five under par. While he had a touch of relative difficulty on the morning of Sept. 18, shooting a 75, he was able to come back in the afternoon and turn in a 71 for a final score of 213, three under par.
Fellow senior Joe Dolby took second place for UCSD, tying for 23rd place overall with his score of 216. Dolby also had his best round on Sept. 17, shooting three under par for a 69, returning on Sept. 18 to shoot an even 72 in the morning and a three-over 75 later that day.
Clinging to Dolby’s coattails was sophomore Ryo Yamada, whose 217 was enough to earn him a tie for 26th and a third-place finish for UCSD. Yamada put in an even 72 on Sept. 17 and earned scores of 74 and 71 in his respective rounds on Sept. 18.
Fourth-place honors for the Tritons fell to sophomore Luke Leveillee, whose total of 223 put him in a tie for 59th place. Leveillee started off even par with 72 on Sept. 17 and turned in rounds of 74 and 77 on Sept. 18.
Rounding out the squad for UCSD was senior Robbie Kramer, who tied for 122nd place by shooting 234. Kramer was on a bit of a roller coaster, shooting 83 on Sept. 17, only to come back and finish with an even 72 for the early Sept. 18 round. However, he ran into difficulty again in the afternoon, ending with a 79.
As a team, UCSD had to prove that, even with the loss of senior Alan Scheer last year, it can still play with the best schools in the nation, and so far that looks to be holding true. The duo of Duckworth and Dolby turned in charateristically solid rounds, and with a finish like this against some of the toughest competition California has to offer, the Tritons will be in the hunt for a championship in the 2004-05 season.
