Men’s Golf Matches Best NCAA Championship Finish since 2004

CARLSBAD, Calif. – After clutch performances at the end of stroke play and in the quarterfinals of match play, the Arizona men’s golf team saw its season come to a close in the semifinals against UCLA, 3-1, on Tuesday at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.
 
The tie for third finish matches the Wildcats best finish in the NCAA Championship since a third place finish in 2004 and ends one of the best postseason runs in the history of the program.
 
“So much of golf is about resilience,” said Arizona head coach Jim Anderson. “If there’s something that you really want, it’s not going to come easy. We were ready for that against UCLA and our team showed a bunch of fight. Of course we are disappointed we didn’t come out on the right side of the match, but I’m so proud of our guys and the year we were able to enjoy together. We are sad to see our seniors go, but there are so many memories that we all made together and that’s what we will remember.”
 
While the score may look like a comfortable win for UCLA, it was anything but that.
 
The first match out was Taishi Moto against Josh Kim for the Bruins, and it was Kim that surged ahead to a 3-up lead through seven holes before Moto responded to win the next two holes. The match remained a 1-up advantage for UCLA until Moto made birdie on 14, hitting the green from more than 230 yards away and then rolling in the putt.
 
A bogey on 15 put UCLA back in front and it remained that way going to the final hole. Moto put himself in position to force extra holes but his birdie putt on the last missed on the low side and UCLA got the first point of the match.
 
The second match featured Tiany Xiong against UCLA’s Tyler Loree and Xiong had a 1-up lead through seven holes. A bogey by the Wildcat on the eighth and then a birdie by Loree on the 10^th hole gave UCLA the lead and he would go on to hand Xiong the 3&2 loss to put the Wildcats in a 2-0 hole.
 
Next it was time for Filip Jakubcik to get the Wildcats on the board, taking a 1-up lead on the fifth hole and not relinquishing that lead the rest of the day on the way to a 3&2 win that brought Arizona to within 2-1 for the match overall.
 
Freshman William…