DALY CITY, Calif. – The UCLA men’s golf team put together a strong opening day Monday at The Desimone Invitational, climbing into fifth place after 36 holes at Lake Merced Golf Club.
The Bruins fired rounds of 8-under 280 and 7-under 281 to finish the day at 15-under 561, positioning themselves in the hunt heading into Tuesday’s final round. UCLA sits just two shots behind Washington State for fourth place, five strokes back of SMU for third and seven strokes behind second-place TCU.
Host venue Lake Merced Golf Club, located along the southern edge of San Francisco, provided ideal scoring conditions as several teams posted low numbers throughout the day.
Arizona State surged to the top of the leaderboard at 29-under 547, opening with a 17-under 271 before adding a 12-under 276 in the afternoon round.
Freshman Josh Kim led the way for UCLA with an impressive performance, carding rounds of 68 (-4) and 70 (-2) to finish the day 6-under 138, good for a tie for ninth place heading into the final round.
Senior Kyle An also made a move up the leaderboard, bouncing back from an opening-round even-par 72 with a 4-under 68 in the afternoon to sit 4-under 140 (T-19).
Sophomore Baylor Larrabee contributed a steady 3-under 141 (T-28) for the Bruins, while freshman Tyler Loree posted even-par 144 (T-45) through two rounds. Sophomore Trevor Garus rounded out the lineup at 4-over 148 (T-70).
Kim rests seven strokes shy of the tournament’s individual leader, Ponsapak Laopakde from Arizona State (first place, 13-under 131).
With one round remaining, the Bruins remain within striking distance of the teams ahead as they look to make a final push up the leaderboard Tuesday at Lake Merced.
UCLA will be back in action with the third and final round on Tuesday, March 10, with players opening at approximately 8:30 a.m. (PT). Live scoring can be viewed online, via Scoreboard powered by Clippd (link here).
