Carrie Forsyth was selected as Pacific 12 Conference’s Coach of the Year for the sixth time and the Bruins swept the conference’s season-ending women’s golf awards, with Lilia Vu being named Player of the Year and Patty Tavatanakit chosen as Freshman of the Year.
Forsyth (pictured) also earned the Coach of the Year honor in 2012, 2011, 2005, 2004 and 2002. She guided the Bruins to seven victories this season, tying the school record. The Bruins won the Pac-12 Conference Championship and tied for the stroke-play title in the NCAA tournament before they were upset by eventual national champion Arizona in the first round of match play.
Vu, a junior from Fountain Valley, gave UCLA its fourth Player of the Year award in the last five seasons, with Alison Lee claiming the honor in 2014 and Bronte Law winning in 2015 and 2016.
The PING Women’s Golf Coaches Association Player of the Year, Vu claimed four victories this season in consecutive events, and has a school-record eight titles in her UCLA career.
Vu posted a 70.37 scoring average this season, the lowest full-season scoring average in UCLA women’s history. Her victories came in the Battle at the Beach, the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, the Bruin Wave Invitational and the Wildcat Invitational. She had nine top-10 finishes, including a tie for seventh in the NCAA Championships.
Tavatanakit, the WGCA Freshman of the Year, won four times in her first season to tie the UCLA single-season record for victories and set a new freshman mark. She didn’t finish outside the Top 20 in any of her 10 events and defeated Vu in a playoff to claim the Pac-12 title.
Her other titles came in the Stanford Intercollegiate, the Silverado Showdown, the NCAA San Francisco Regional.
Vu and Tavatanakit both made the WGCA All-American First Team.
The Bruins have won the Pac-12 Coach of the Year Award eight times, the Player of the Year Award 12 times and the Freshman of the Year Award seven times.
