Freshmen Duel for Pac-10 Golf Title Has Good and Bad Ending for USC

A slight breeze couldn’t keep up with the emotions that swirled on a clear day at Eugene Country Club in Oregon.

Mikaela Parmlid, a big hitter and a risk-taker on the golf course, was on a high last Wednesday after her birdie at the 17th hole put her into a tie with Candie Kung for the Pacific 10 Conference individual title.

Kung, who knows a thing or two about contending for titles, coolly avoided any mistakes on the 18th hole to force a playoff with Parmlid.

USC women’s golf Coach Andrea Gaston had mixed feelings that her two prized freshmen were the ones battling for the conference championship.

“The only thing missing was that we wouldn’t win the team title,” Gaston said. “I was quite excited at the time. But I also remember turning to the rest of my team and saying, ‘Geez, who are we going to root for?’ ”

Her dilemma lasted only one hole. Parmlid, who had not beaten Kung in any of the Trojans’ tournaments this season, made a short par putt to win medalist honors.

It was a major achievement for the Swedish native.

Or so everyone thought.

After the trophies had been handed out and after all the hugs and congratulations, Parmlid was disqualified for having signed an incorrect scorecard.

She had mistakenly recorded a birdie three instead of a four at the par-four 14th. Parmlid’s title went to Kung and the Trojans went from second place to fifth.

“It was quite shocking,” Gaston said. “But you always want to maintain the integrity of this game.”

The error was revealed on the scorecard of playing partner Amanda Moltke-Leth of UCLA. It is routine practice for players to keep their partner’s score as well as their own.

Parmlid and Gaston said it was an honest mistake.

“She’s such a talented and emotional player,” Gaston said. “She’s 18 years old and had never been in a position to win in an event like this. I think she just got caught up in her emotions and didn’t organize all her thoughts properly.

“I don’t doubt her integrity. Whether she did it or didn’t do it, she’ll never [make that mistake] again.”

Kung, the 1999 American Junior Golf Assn. player of the year, shot a two-under par 70 in the final round, including birdies on three of the final five holes.

Gaston tried her best to remind Kung that she earned the title.

“I know that Candie couldn’t totally understand how a player could let that happen,” she said. “But she also respected the fact that Mikaela beat her in that playoff.

“I told Candie that she played great. She earned that win.”

Gaston, the optimist, said this episode may be a rallying point for the team. A simple error took three places away from the Trojans but it didn’t dim their hopes of winning the NCAA West Regional next week and challenging for the NCAA title in Sunriver, Ore.

She also hasn’t lost any faith in Parmlid.

“My experience is that you look at it as a minor setback,” Gaston said. “Sometimes it is your own mistakes that you have to come back from.

“Often these setbacks kind of fuel the fire. I wouldn’t be surprised if the team rallies around this.”

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USC is the defending national champion in women’s water polo. It will also be the underdog in this year’s collegiate national championships, which begin Friday at Bloomington, Ind.

Five local teams qualified for the 16-team single-elimination tournament. USC is seeded fourth behind top-seeded Stanford, California and UCLA. Long Beach State is 10th, UC Santa Barbara 11th and Loyola Marymount 13th in its first appearance.

The Trojans haven’t been nearly as dominant as 1999’s 30-2 team. Even with their top two scorers in Aniko Pelle and Nina Wengst returning this season, they had to replace national player of the year Bernice Orwig in goal.

But they come into the tournament as the Western Regional champions after beating UCLA, 9-7, for the first time in five meetings this year.

“It definitely helps to know that you can beat a team,” said sixth-year Coach Jovan Vavic. “If we would have lost, it would have made a big difference in terms of our seeding.”

Wengst and Pelle are one of the top one-two scoring punches in the country with 111 goals between them. Vavic, however, said the key was Suzannah Johnson accepting the goalkeeper job early in the year.

“She played in the field throughout high school and with us last year,” Vavic said. “She’s a very offensive player but we needed her in goal because of injuries to our other keepers.

“It’s like asking your quarterback to become the most defensive position on the team.”

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UCLA’s Sara Walker won the Pac-10 women’s singles title in tennis by defeating Arizona State’s Allison Bradshaw, 6-1, 6-1, Sunday at Ojai’s Libbey Park.

Walker, ranked No. 7 in the nation, did not lose a set in five matches. She also avoided top-seeded Laura Granville of Stanford, who had withdrawn because of heat exhaustion.

Jacqui Boyd and Jewel Peterson of USC won the Pac-10 invitational doubles title by beating Stanford’s Jen Heiser and Sara Pestieau, 6-4, 7-6.

COLLEGE DIVISION

Redlands advanced to the Division III women’s water polo national championships by defeating Occidental, 5-4, Sunday. Katie Reichert and Jen Halverson each scored two goals for the Bulldogs, who will be top-seeded when the tournament begins Friday at UC Santa Cruz.

Cal Poly Pomona needs one win at Chico State this weekend to wrap up the fourth and final spot in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. baseball tournament next week. The Broncos have won nine straight games and have gone 26-11 after starting the season 2-11.

Cal State Bakersfield (9-4) will face UC Davis in the NCAA Division II West Regional women’s tennis tournament Saturday at UC Davis. The Cal Poly Pomona men (25-4) will also be at UC Davis and play Sonoma State. The regional winner will advance to the NCAA championships next week in Pensacola, Fla.