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The Bruins head to Alpharetta, Ga. for the ninth consecutive season, playing at this weekend's U.S. Collegiate Championship at The Golf Club of Georgia.
The 54-hole, three-day tournament starts on Friday and continues through Sunday on the Lakeside Course (par 72, yardage 7,017).
Heading east for the Bruins are seniors Jonathan Garrick and Jake Knapp, sophomore Brandon Mai and freshmen Cole Madey and Patrick Murphy. UCLA tee times for Friday begin at 8:30 a.m. PT, with Mai starting things off on #10, followed by Murphy, Madey, Knapp and Garrick. UCLA is paired with Auburn and Virginia.
The Bruins have finished third in each of their first two tournaments this fall, The Northern Intercollegiate and the Erin Hills Intercollegiate. UCLA improved 29 shots from its first to second tournament and saw Garrick claim medalist honors at Erin Hills with a 10-under 206.
Garrick has five straight rounds under par, shooting 68-69-69 at the Erin Hills Intercollegiate (Oct. 4-6) to win his second collegiate tournament. He also finished in a tie for sixth at the season-opening Northern Intercollegiate (218, +2). Garrick has three Top 20 showings at the U.S. Collegiate, placing in a tie for eighth last year, T-18 in 2013 and T-9 in 2012.
Knapp (76-73-69) and Murphy (73-73-72) are each coming off their second straight Top 20 finishes, both placing in a tie for 19th at Erin Hills (+2, 218).
Mai will be with the Bruin five for the first time after playing the first two tournaments as an individual. He had a T-31 at Erin Hills. Madey is playing in his third straight tournament after going T-40 in Wisconsin.
The Bruins have appeared in this tournament every season since 2007. UCLA won the U.S. Collegiate Championship in 2011 and also has second-place finishes in 2007, 2010 and 2012. The Bruins have finished fifth in each of the last two seasons.
The 13th-ranked Bruins are one of 12 ranked teams playing in the tournament, including #1 Florida State, #3 Auburn, #4 Oklahoma State, #5 LSU, #7 Stanford, #9 Texas, #10 Clemson, #11 Georgia Tech, #14 Wake Forest, #15 Oklahoma and #19 USC. Also receiving votes in the most recent Bushnell Golfweek Coaches Poll (Sept. 25) are Kent State and Virginia, and rounding out the 17-team field are East Tennessee State, Iowa and Ole Miss.